Follow The Leader
by BoomChish
Summary: COMPLETED! Seiji gets kicked out of Emperor and starts his own team... with his own problems... among other things...
1. Intro, Disclaimer, Prologue & Chap1

Whee… now where do I start? Ah yes… I've read numerous Initial D fanfics both here and offsite and many of them feature either our sleepy-eyed tofu boy, or one of the Takahashi kyoudai (or around original characters who interact with the aforementioned boys). Less frequently are stories about our beloved lady team, Impact Blue, or lesser important racers, like the Night Kids, the Speed Stars or Kyouichi of Emperor. But if there's one thing that I've noticed, there aren't any stories around that focus on Seiji, the other semi-important driver in Emperor.

Why not?

I mean, sure, Seiji is portrayed as an ass in both the manga and anime, but in other stories where other crude characters go OOC, they make them out to be nicer than they really are. So why not give Seiji that much credit? He's an ass to other racers, but what about to other people aside from his teammates? I doubt he'd survive long in any society if he was an ass to everyone, right? So what follows is my homage to the one man in Initial D who's very misunderstood… the one the only Iwaki Seiji.

(one person is heard slowly clapping in the background) Oh, you people are mean! =(

Disclaimer: Initial D and its characters are the respective copyrights of Shigeno-san and Kodansha. Alex, Jin and Miyoko are my own creations, as well as Miyoko's family, but the little historical part about the Edo period is true, so I do not claim credit for that either. (Hey, it doesn't hurt to throw in _some_ history in there!)

Follow The Leader  
by BoomChish

PROLOGUE

_I didn't know what else to say as Kyouichi raised his right hand high and brought it down in a fierce slap across my face, causing my whole head to snap to one side. I cringed at the impact of his hand striking my face. It hurt a lot… but not as much as his words were when they followed right after…_

"You're a disgrace to Emperor, you know that, Seiji? You're good for nothing; you can't even keep up with some of the mediocre road racers in the area. We're supposed to be the best of the best in this area and instead, we seem like a bunch of losers, all because you can't seem to use your brain properly when racing against them!" They probably wouldn't have stabbed me so hard if Kyouichi had been yelling at me, but he wasn't… he was unbelievably cold and calm when he said them. That hurt even more.

I kept my mouth shut. I knew that my feeble excuses wouldn't save my ass this time. It was bad enough that I'd lost to Fujiwara Takumi all those months ago on Akina, when Kyouichi had wanted to take over Gunma in a month. But then, of course, that little twerp was a monster behind the wheel of his Toyota Trueno Hachi-Roku. I didn't stand a chance. It was rather embarrassing when I was completely dominated by Takahashi Keisuke of the Akagi RedSuns on Akagi, especially since Kyouichi and Keisuke's aniki, Ryousuke have been rivals for some time. And it was downright humiliating to lose to some no name kid from our area known as Kogashiwa Kai. After all, being an Emperor of Irohazaka, I should_ have been able to destroy him on my home course, but I just couldn't. But I knew that this time, I would not be saved._

My opponent this time was some fresh-faced kid from our area who drove a Nissan Silvia S14 K Aero. Kyouichi had told me that he was a pushover, someone even I_ should be able to beat. But as soon as the kid passed me in the second section, I knew this kid had some skill under his belt. From where, I have no clue, but I was completely dominated. And Kyouichi was pissed when I arrived at the bottom of the downhill course. He hid his anger well, but I'd have preferred it if he'd raged in my face. But the fact that he was ice cold was enough to warn me that I'd really done it this time. I was screwed._

And it came. "Someone like you shouldn't even be in_ Emperor in the first place, let alone the second-best driver of this team. There are many others here who have a better potential than you do, mainly because they all have functional brains, something that you don't. Your sticker," Here, he held out his hand to me, his face impassive. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I walked over to my beloved car, my Evo IV, and peeled off the _Emperor_ sticker that graced my back windshield. I handed it over to him and he took it from me. He then pulled out his Xacto blade and cut it in half, the same way we used to do with other teams' stickers when we'd defeat them. Most of them still graced my back wing. I watched, stunned and in silence, as Kyouichi took both sides of my sticker and stuck them together, then tossed it on the ground and stepped on it with absolute disgust._

"Get the hell out of here," he spoke, as he turned around, his back facing me. It was the worst day of my life. Feeling like an absolute loser, I simply got into my Evo, started the engine and drove off. I knew that my time with Emperor was over. That my time as a road racer was over…

My name is Iwaki Seiji. I am officially retiring from the road-racing scene…

Chapter One

Back On The Rocks

I was sick and tired of living in my apartment by myself. Not only was the rent ridiculously high, with the utility costs and whatnot, it was a pretty shitty apartment to begin with. I only decided to rent a place there because it was cheap and affordable, compared to other places that were for rent. And since no one ever visits me anyway, I figured no one would really give a crap about how it looked. But after living there for five years, I wanted out.

I went apartment hunting for a long while, but I eventually had to give up because either the rent was too high, the place sucked ass or the landlord (or landlady) was just an ass. And after living with a crappy landlord for five years in a shitty apartment with high rent, I didn't want to jump back onto _that_ bandwagon. No siree, I wouldn't even dream of it.

Fortunately, my younger brother Jin offered me an alternative; he'd been living with some friends of his from university in a house, and one of them had recently moved out to go live in Europe, so there was a room available for me. The house was owned by one of his fellow classmates and friends and from what he told me, they didn't mind if I moved in. All I had to do was pitch in for the bills, groceries and whatever other fees that incurred concerning the house and its maintenance. Figuring that I had nothing to lose and hey, living in a house sounds a hell of a lot better than living in a shitty apartment, I agreed and Jin suggested that I come over to visit his fellow housemates first before I made a final decision.

As I drove on, following the directions I was given by my brother, I started to think about him. I hadn't seen the sonofabitch in years and it would be certainly interesting, if not enjoyable, to be living under the same roof with him again. Jinzaburo Iwaki, who, at twenty-three, is six years younger than I am. As far as appearances go, we share the same hair length (long, black and straight, except mine is constantly ponytailed, while he prefers to wear it loose like some carefree Romeo), same height, same build and same eye color. Except he's still got the freshness of youth on his face, so he's goddamn irresistible to all the young ladies. I, on the other hand, look ten years older than I really am, so instead of ladies flocking me, they're more apt to run _away_ from me. Ah, the ironies of life…

After about ten minutes of driving, I finally found the street where the house was located. As I drove down the street slowly, checking out the house numbers, the first thought that ran through my head was, _This can't be right… this is like… the high-class area of Nikko… now way could Jin and his friends afford to stay _here_ while they're studying full-time in university…_ Piqued by my interest, (and the possible notion that Jin played a prank on me, as he often did when we were younger) I drove on.

I eventually found the house and parked in front of it. The address I had written down matched the address on the house… except… The house was _huge_. It was modern in style, so it couldn't have been there long… and it was certainly bigger than the house that my family grew up in. But that wasn't the most disconcerting part…

There was a four-car driveway in front of the house… and there were three (yes, count them, _three_) Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIIs parked in the driveway. One was clear blue, one was cherry red and the last one was canary yellow. They contrasted each other so garishly, like a child's erratic coloring of a drawing. _Now_ I was even more interested to see my brother and his supposedly strange housemates.

I walked up the path and rang the doorbell. A barking noise from within the house ensued, deep, furious and persistent. I chanced a look at the living room window and saw a black muzzle poking out from behind the drapes, barking at me. Well, they have a dog. I guess I could live with that. After all, I like dogs.

The front door opened and I found myself face to face with a complete stranger. He had short blond hair in a layered fashion, somewhat like Tidus from Final Fantasy X, clear blue eyes, a tiny goatee on his chin and… pale skin. To be blunt… he was a foreigner. _Crap… he _did _play a joke on me… That sonofabitch…I'm gonna kill him…_

"Ah, you must be Seiji. Jin's older brother, right?" he spoke.

He spoke perfect Japanese, down to the accent. If not for his looks, he could pass for a native.

I blinked. _He knew my name?_ "Yeah."

The man bowed slightly, then smiled broadly. "Hi, I'm Alex Stanford. I'm one of Jin's friends and his classmate from university." I must've looked confused, because he chuckled and said, "I moved here from America two years ago. But I've been studying Japanese culture since I was young, which is why I've perfected the language. You can't detect an accent, can you?"

I shook my head. "Not at all. Absolutely flawless."

"Sweet." He grinned and stepped aside. "Come on in. Your brother will be happy to see you."

I stepped inside the house and Alex closed the door behind us. The barking increased and a huge black Labrador retriever ran up to me and jumped up at me, trying to lick my face. I let the dog rest his front paws on my chest as I affectionately ruffled his head.

"That's Sparky, my dog. He's about three years old. When I moved here, I just couldn't leave him behind, so I brought him along. He's a very friendly dog, though he does get noisy at times," Alex explained.

I chuckled. "Not a problem. I used to have a dog when I was younger. I can handle it."

Out of the blue, I heard my brother's familiar cheery voice; "Aniki! You made it!"

I looked up at the staircase and saw Jin running down to greet me with a hearty smack on the shoulder and a hug. I hugged him back; after all, I hadn't seen him for nearly eight years. He hadn't changed much, I had to admit. He'd merely toned up just enough to have that all-around sex appeal that women couldn't resist. The sex appeal I'd lost the moment I hit twenty-five. Just my luck, huh?

Jin was speaking, "So, I see you met Alex and Sparky, huh? Cool. Miyoko's busy at the moment, but she'll be out soon to say hello."

"Miyoko?" I repeated. So they had a female housemate too?

Jin nodded. "Yeah. In fact, she owns this house. It was given to her as a present from her dad for graduating from high school with top honors. Bet you've even heard of her family, aniki."

I shrugged. "Depends… What's her family name?"

"She's Miyoko Ieyasu, the daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu," Alex supplied helpfully. At the mention of _that_ name, my eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. Hiroji Ieyasu was the sole owner of Ieyasu Incorporated, one of Japan's largest electronics manufacturers. It was also rumored that their family was descended directly from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns during the Edo period, but those rumors were unfounded. Either way, the information was a lot of absorb. _My _little brother was living in a house… with the daughter of _Hiroji Ieyasu_… and he never told our parents? Damn, they'd completely flip if they found out.

Jin was watching me with open amusement. "I can see we caught you off guard. In any case, Miyoko's a nice girl. She's younger than both Alex and myself by two years, and she's fairly easygoing and fun to be around, albeit a bit direct in her manner. I met her in my sophomore year in university in one of my study groups. She's taking advanced classes, which is how we landed in the same study group."

"And you enchanted her with your irresistible charms and she allowed you and your friends to stay in her house with her?" I queried.

Alex laughed aloud at that. "Not exactly, considering who Miyoko is and how often she's dealt with drooling, hollow-brained suitors, but if it were any other woman, I'd have to agree." Seeing my look on my face, he continued, "Actually, back then, we were living in one of the dormitories on campus when Jin met Miyoko. What piqued her interest in him - well, the both of us, actually - is that all three of us drive Evo VIIs. I know it sounds like a retarded, shallow idea, but that's the truth. We started to exchange information on modifications and whatnot and finally, one day, she invited the both of us to come live with her. Surely you've seen the three Evos outside, right?"

So the cars _did_ belong to them. "Can I take a guess… the bright yellow one is Miyoko's, right?"

It was Jin's turn to laugh out loud. "Everyone says that when they see our cars together for the first time. But no. Actually, aniki, the yellow Evo belongs to Alex. The red one is Miyoko's and the blue one is mine. It's also kind of ironic that with the three of our cars together, we have the three primary colors."

I looked over at Alex with a questioning look. "Why yellow?"

He shrugged then smiled. "I like the color, that's all…"

"So… are you guys street racers, or something like that?"

"Oh, dear God, no! We wish, though," Jin spoke wistfully. "It's just that we need practice… lots of it… and the closest mountain pass here is Irohazaka, but that's Emperor territory… and no way do we wanna practice on _their_ turf… They'd decimate us in a heartbeat…"

---

Yeah, I think I'd stop it just about there. Don't worry, more will come soon!

A/N: For simplicity's sake, I figured that one way to bring out the better personality in Seiji would be to throw him in various situations with a sibling, preferably a younger sibling. So I gave him a younger brother. (A younger sister would have been too awkward for Seiji, seeing as he'd have to deal with her boyfriends and stuff that older brothers despise taking care of) Jin's physical description was deliberate; I made him to be the handsomer, younger version of Seiji who makes all women stare when he walks by. Makes you think about the possibility that Seiji was some handsome sonofabitch when he was younger, but lost it after a while when he stopped taking care of his physical appearance.

I made a comparison between Alex and Tidus, because that's the best way I could explain his hairdo. Maybe Seiji has played FFX, maybe he just saw some posters. But that's the best example I could give, so that you could get a pretty good idea of what I meant his hairdo to look like.

You'll notice that Seiji has not met Miyoko yet. (will something happen between them? Probably not… but who knows? Dun dun dunnn!) Anyhow, putting all jest aside, I'll give you a little inside spoiler on what I intend for Miyoko to be. Since she's the daughter of a rich entrepreneur, she's meant to be a spoiled little rich princess. And as it is often the case with spoiled brats, they're not afraid to say their mind. She's the one character who'll make Seiji act the way he does in the manga and anime, all because her attitude will clash with his. How she will do that, you'll just have to wait and see!

-BoomChish


	2. CH2: Save Me

Yes, I'm back again. Chapter Two isn't all that long, but at least here, we get to finally meet the self-proclaimed princess of Ieyasu… Miyoko! Let's see how Seiji deals with her.

Disclaimer: I don't know how many times I'm going to write this, but… (sigh) I don't own Initial D, or any of its characters. They belong to Shigeno and Kodansha. Alex, Jin and Miyoko belong to me, though.

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Two

Save Me

"Oh, dear God, no! We wish, though," Jin spoke wistfully. "It's just that we need practice… lots of it… and the closest mountain pass here is Irohazaka, but that's Emperor territory… and no way do we wanna practice on _their_ turf… They'd decimate us in a heartbeat…"

Aha… so Jin had heard of Emperor. How interesting. Did he know that _I_ used to be a member of Emperor until recently? I'd already fallen out of contact with him when I'd first joined Emperor, so who knows?

"Yeah… I'd heard about those Emperor guys… They're ruthless on the mountain passes…" I answered vaguely. Alex regarded me with interest.

"Tell me, Seiji… you seem to know a lot about Emperor… are _you_ a road racer? Or is your information secondhand… like from a friend who's a road racer?"

My eyebrows shot up and I stared at Alex in open amusement. "No, no… you were right the first time… I was a road racer… But I recently retired." Seeing the look of combined shock and disappointment on both their faces, I continued; "Maintaining a car for racing is expensive, you know… I think that in the whole time I've been racing, I've replaced my tires maybe eight to nine times in total. Not to mention the fact that I also shelled out a bundle to replace my intake system, tweak my suspension and change my brakes. And with my current job, I can't really afford it."

Jin and Alex exchanged glances before they started to laugh. I scowled at that open display of mockery… mockery, which was so blatantly at _my _expense. "What's so funny?"

Alex managed to calm down first. "Okay… maybe we should start at the beginning… You see… the three of us, Miyoko, Jin and myself, are a bunch of amateur road racers… who lack the necessary skills to even be considered a challenge by the big boys out there. With Miyoko's patronage, if I may speak so pompously of her, car maintenance isn't even an issue with us. We can afford anything. What we _do_ lack is the racing skills… Now here's where _you_ come in, Seiji. Since you were a road racer, you should know at least some tricks of the trade in mountain racing… think you could help us out?"

I stared at Alex with open disgust. "Are you suggesting that I'm someone who could be bribed into giving away my knowledge of road racing?" Hey, I had _some_ dignity after all. At least I paid for my own car upgrades with my own blood and sweat. Not like those rich brats in Gunma, Project D. Everyone knew that those Takahashi brats had more than enough money - their parents' money - to actually have a team of mechanics constantly available for keeping two - count them, two! - cars in top-notch shape. Well, if everyone had that, of course everyone would be unstoppable. But almost no one else has that kind of money to throw away. And some of us, myself included, were proud to be the few who pay for our own maintenance with our own money.

Alex exchanged a glance with Jin, who quickly cut in, "No, no! Nothing of that sort, aniki! Besides, right now, our team isn't even official. How can we be, we _suck_! We're just asking for a few tips of the trade. So that we can have a better chance at actually ranking against the better road racers out there." He fixed me with his puppy-dog look (which he probably used on countless women with success… save for one problem here… I'm _not_ a woman…) and just stared at me, as if to say _Please? Pretty please?_

I let out a huge sigh. Suddenly, there was a feminine voice behind me. "Cut out the sissy look Jin; you look ridiculous. And besides, isn't it your turn to cook dinner today?"

I turned around and stared at Miyoko, who had obviously just arrived from whatever it was she was doing. She was a full head shorter than me; with long dark hair similar to mine and Jin, a well-defined heart-shaped face and full lips turned downward in a disapproving frown. But what disconcerted me the most about her were her eyes… they were a deep emerald green and they stared around like pointed daggers. Considering the house was hers, it made sense that she'd be the domineering force around here. But if I had to live under _her_ rule, things may be very difficult…

"So… you're Jin's aniki, Seiji. Well, it's nice to meet you." She bowed slightly and I did the same.

"And I you, Miyoko-chan. You have a nice house here," I spoke politely. No point in antagonizing the mistress of the house.

She shrugged selflessly. "Thank you."

Jin suddenly sprang to life. "Well now… I guess I'll get started on dinner. Hey aniki, why not join us? I'm not so bad at the stove, if I say so myself!" He gave an impish grin, which Miyoko shot down almost immediately with her lethal gaze.

"As long as you don't cook that cheese casserole of yours… I could swear that my stomach had joined the circus for three whole days after eating that stuff. And I'm sure you'd want to spare your aniki that awful sensation, right?" She cast me a sidelong glance, in which I merely raised my eyebrows in response.

"Yes Miyoko," Jin answered dutifully before he sauntered off towards the kitchen.

Alex opened his mouth to speak when out of nowhere the telephone rang shrilly. He snapped to attention. "Ooh, that should be for me. Wait here; I won't be long!" and then _he_ dashed off, leaving me alone with the proverbial princess of Ieyasu. Fairly easygoing and fun to be around, my foot. She looked ready to kill someone. And I was the only one readily available.

"So… did you tell them that you used to be a member of the Irohazaka Emperors?" she asked out of the blue. My eyes snapped wide open and I stared down at her in unguarded shock.

"H-how did _you_ know that?!" I demanded, half scared, half angry.

Miyoko shrugged. "Hey, when Jin told me that he'd be offering the spare bedroom to his beloved aniki, I took the time to run a complete and thorough background check on you. After all, I _am_ the eldest daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu… so I have to take every precaution necessary before allowing someone to stay in my home, no?"

She had a point. I shrugged and inclined my head. "Makes sense…" Then I gave her a direct stare of my own. "Are you going to tell them? That I used to be a member of Emperor, I mean."

"Maybe… maybe not. It all depends," she said lightly as she tousled her hair.

"Depends on what?" I had to ask.

She paced around the room a bit before she turned to face me again. "I'm sure either Alex or Jin told you about our supposed racing team, Evo Prime, right?" Evo Prime? Clever, considering their car colors… "Well, I'll make no beans about it… Our skills are horrible. Other road racers would laugh at us if we even tried right now. But since _you_ used to be the second-best driver in Emperor, you _have_ to have at least a certain amount of skills in road racing…" Miyoko paused again, then shook her head. "I was always bad at being tactful, so I'll be blunt." Here, she stabbed a finger at the air towards me. "I want _you_ as our team leader. You're going to teach us how to be good road racers."

Talk about blunt. I folded my arms across my chest and glared at her. No way was some woman - no, no, _kid_ (I recalled Jin mentioning that Miyoko is only twenty-one, so to me, she's still a kid) - going to tell me what to do. "And if I don't want to?"

She made a sweeping gesture, as if to indicate her surroundings. "You want to live here, or at your crappy little apartment with the overpriced rent and the pain-in-the-ass landlord?" I was about to ask how she knew about that, then remembered that she'd done a goddamn background check on me. Well, if she did a background check on me and told my brother that he could tell me to check the place out for consideration, it must mean that she considers me to be a trustworthy person. Before I could even help myself, I realized that I was grinning. Why would I give _this_ up for my apartment? I'm not _that_ dumb!

"You're a very shrewd businesswoman, Miyoko-chan," I commented.

"Comes with the territory, Seiji. My father expects me to take over the business for him someday, so I _have_ to be shrewd in business matters. And what better way to practice than now?"

I inclined my head at that, then I wrinkled my nose. "So… in exchange for your permission for me to stay here, I must agree to become Evo Prime's leader?" When she nodded, I continued, "I'll accept… but only on consideration. If I don't like how things are going, I'd like the permission to back down."

Miyoko merely shrugged. "Then your permission to stay here is only on consideration. If you back down, you can't stay. Sounds fair?"

Despite myself, I shook my head at her. "You just don't give up until you get your way, don't you?" I demanded, half in amusement, half in exasperation.

"Absolutely not. So you understand my point now, yes?"

I could do nothing but shrug. "Indeed I do." I then sighed and extended my hand to her. "Miyoko-chan, I do believe we have a deal."

She then grinned broadly and shook it fervently. "You won't be disappointed, Seiji."

Won't I? We'll just see about that…

---

So that's that for Chapter Two. Told you it wasn't long.

A/N: I know at this point, Miyoko seems to act more like Seiji than Seiji does himself, but that's the whole point of her character, as I mentioned before. She's going to be a thorn in his side and he'll definitely have problems with her, especially considering that even though he's the team leader, _she_ owns the house. It was hard enough for him to have to deal with Kyouichi as an overbearing leader when in Emperor, but how's he going to handle dealing with an overbearing witch who's not only a head shorter than he, but eight years younger?

Yes, Sparky conveniently disappeared after his brief introduction to Seiji. He'll be back later on; don't worry.

-BoomChish


	3. CH3: No One Sleep In Nikko

Okay, here's the third chapter. Not really much intro needed, just read and see.

Disclaimer: I don't own… aaaaaahhhh, just skip back a chapter or two and you'll find it!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Three

No One Sleep In (Nikko)

After I'd moved all my stuff into the spare bedroom in Miyoko's house, the four of us immediately began discussing issues pertaining to their racing team, Evo Prime. First order of business was finding a safe place for practicing. Even though Irohazaka was the closest mountain pass to our current location, being the Emperor stronghold automatically made it out of the question.

That didn't leave much else. I wasn't very familiar with other mountain passes, and the only three I was familiar with were Momiji, which was the home course of the Seven Star Leafs; Enna Pass, the citadel of the Todo Racing School; and of course, Irohazaka.

"There's got to be some place around here that no team has claimed, aniki," Jin protested when I'd told him that I was fresh out of ideas. Alex merely nodded vigorously, while Miyoko remained silent, typing away at her laptop. She always seemed to be busy at her laptop. If it weren't for her harsh and commanding attitude, I'd say she'd be something like Ryousuke Takahashi. Come to think of it, she's more of a cross between Kyouichi and Takahashi… in a female body.

"Well, to be frank, it doesn't matter if you've claimed a mountain pass for your team, Jin. You have to be able to defend it from intruders. If you can't do that, you can't really call the mountain pass yours," I explained as honestly as I possibly could. Which was true, in a way. I couldn't defend Irohazaka for the life of me, which was why Kyouichi threw me out. I'd ruined Emperor's name with my shoddy skills. And yet… I was to train these novices to become worthy enough to rival Emperor?

Miyoko suddenly shot out a word. "Happogahara."

All three of us stared at her. "What?"

"Happogahara. It's a mountain pass a little farther away from Irohazaka, but to my knowledge, no team has claimed it yet. Project D's Fujiwara had a race there once… against some diminishing rally racer known as Tomoyuki Tachi. Back then, the road was still under construction, so neither racer had been there before. We could practice there."

Of course. How could I have forgotten. It was Kyouichi who'd gone to Ryousuke Takahashi and had warned him about Tomoyuki and his skill as a rally racer. They had both attended Todo Racing School at the same time. But I had my own questions to ask.

"That may be all fine, but how technical of a course is it?" I inquired.

"See for yourself." She turned around her laptop to show me the map displayed on her screen. Happogahara was a narrow pass with lots of fast consecutive turns, as well as a few extremely sharp hairpins. A road racer's paradise. It was more than perfect. But something bothered me.

"How did you know about the race between Project D and Tomoyuki Tachi? I heard that it was kept extremely low key, in consideration of Tachi's fame as a rally racer."

Miyoko gave me her trademark _You're a dumbass, did you know that?_ look. "I have my sources, and I refuse to divulge them." And she had a point. Being the daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu, she was bound to have access to information far beyond our normal scope.

"You think we can check it out now?" Alex asked hopefully.

I stood up. "Sure, why not? Shall we all go in separate cars, or all in one?"

"I'd rather take my own car," Alex spoke.

Miyoko shook her head. "I've got some work to do. You boys can go on by yourselves. I'll check it out on my own later." She made to rise, but my look bore into her.

"I think all of us should go together as a team," I spoke quietly, so as not to arouse her anger. I'd learned quite fast that if Miyoko was opposed, she was apt to lose her temper very quickly. The way I often did whenever someone opposed me, but as team leader of these newbies, I knew I'd have to at least make an effort to control myself. Particularly around Miyoko, whose temper was the same as mine, if not shorter. How the other guys got along with her so easily is beyond me; it seemed like she was purposely trying to make my life difficult.

Jin turned to face Miyoko. "C'mon Miyo… couldn't you just set it aside for now and come with us? I'm sure we won't be long, and the instant we return home, you can go off and do whatever it is you have to do and we won't bother you. We swear upon it. Isn't that right?" he asked, glancing at both Alex and I.

"Absolutely," we both agreed, nodding our heads.

She appeared to mull it over until she finally acquiesced. Well, that was one obstacle overcome. Now for the question of how many cars we'd take…

"Well, all four may be a bit excessive… How about we go in two cars? I know that Seiji will most likely be one of the drivers, but who'll be the other one?" Alex questioned.

"You said you wanted to take your own car… so obviously, you can take your own car if you want to," Jin pointed out matter-of-factly. "And I'll go with you, then. Miyoko can go with Seiji."

Oh, sure. Leave _me_ with the witch. I think Jin secretly wants me dead. Miyoko merely raised her eyebrows at the suggestion, then snapped her laptop shut before she stood up. "I'll just put this away for now. I'll be down shortly."

For the most part, Miyoko remained silent throughout our entire trip to Happogahara. We approached the route from the beginning of the inbound section and I noted through my rearview mirror that Alex and Jin had managed to keep up the pace behind me. But then, of course, I wasn't going as fast as I normally would, so there's something else to consider.

"Seems empty," I commented, hoping to start a conversation.

She merely wrinkled her nose and said nothing. Well, at least I tried. I merely frowned as I drove on, the silence almost deafening.

"How fast are your reflexes?" she suddenly blurted out. Her words were so sudden that I was stunned momentarily.

"Uhh… pretty fast… fast enough to react if a car comes out of nowhere in the opposite direction… why?" She _had_ to be up to something. Why else would she ask such a question.

The answer I'd anticipated came soon enough. "Good. Drive as you would if you were racing someone." It was a command, short and simple.

I'm sure the confusion registered on my face. "I beg your pardon? In broad daylight?!"

"Just do it," she replied, quietly, coldly and firmly. She _had_ to be insane. Most road racers _never_ race in the daytime, simply because the risk of running into another motorist is just too high. I tried one more time to convince her otherwise. "It's daytime… there may be cops about, and I don't want to hurt-"

"I said _do it!_" she ordered sharply. Her voice had risen.

Okay… but don't say I didn't warn you…

I pressed down on the accelerator and watched the red needle on my tachometer shoot up. As soon as it redlined, I geared up and literally sped forward, away from Alex and Jin, who, I imagine, were wondering what the hell had come over me. I stole a quick glance at Miyoko and saw that she'd already gripped onto the handle above her door with her left hand for support. Her right hand lay nestled calmly on her thigh. And her face registered nothing.

The turns came fast and sudden. Being careful not to brake too hard or turn the wheel excessively, I let go of the gas and turned just enough to allow my Evo to slide just enough into the first turn, then I immediately set myself up for the counter. Miyoko still didn't say a word; she merely sat there and watched the corners approach with an impassive expression dominating her features.

I dropped gears when a series of sharp consecutive hairpins came up. I knew that my entry speed was slower than possibly some other racers who've attempted it before, but I wanted to make sure that I could clear it as safely as I could without going too slow, lest I wanted Miyoko to call me a wuss. Hell, she'd probably call me one anyway, no matter what I do. I glanced at my rearview mirror once during the whole run. Not a sign of Alex or Jin anywhere. I must've left them trailing in my dust.

It went on for a few more minutes until I finally saw the final stretch, which I knew to be the end of the inbound pass and the beginning of the outbound route. There, I pulled off to the side and slowed down. There was a long bout of silence that ensued. Miyoko never moved, or said anything, so I decided to start the conversation. "So… what did you think?"

"So that's what Alex, Jin and I have to achieve?" she queried.

"In short, yes… Preferably, if you can do better than that, I'd be happier. But I can't ask for everything, can't I?"

She mulled over my words, then let out a sigh. "I've got my work cut out for me…"

Good thing you've noticed. Just then, I heard the approaching roar of Alex's engine as his Evo pulled up behind mine. I stepped out of my car and waited for them. Miyoko did the same.

"Jesus, what the hell was that?! You just ran off like the devil was after you!" Alex exclaimed angrily as he and Jin emerged from the Evo VII. "And in broad daylight too! You're damn lucky there weren't any other cars around, or cops for that matter!"

Jin was considerably less belligerent, especially when he saw both Miyoko's expression and mine. He narrowed his eyes a bit, then spoke the key words: "It was Miyo who told you to drive fast like that, am I right?" When he saw me acquiesce with a nod, he shook his head, then addressed her. "That was a gutsy thing you did. Foolish and extremely dangerous, but gutsy. It's a good thing my aniki's skilled enough to tackle those corners at that speed, otherwise both of you could've been hurt. And I would not have liked to see either of you get hurt."

She merely scowled for a second before she let out a sigh of defeat and bowed her head. "You're right; I'm sorry. I just wanted an idea of what skill level we should achieve in order to be considered highly skilled. And right now, there's no better way than to ride shotgun in a former road racer's car as he takes on a highly technical pass, no?"

Me? Highly skilled? I guess she was trying to be nice. Either that or she didn't know my one real weakness… Kyouichi often told me that I had a lot of skills when it came to road racing. My only real fault was the fact that I'm extremely impatient and I tend to lose my temper easily while I'm behind the wheel. And if I had little to no control over my temper while racing, my skills were rendered moot, because my temper would get the best of me and cloud my judgement.

Alex had suitably calmed down as he glanced at Jin, then Miyoko and finally rested his gaze on me. With genuine admiration, he said, "Seriously though, that was insane! I could barely take the turns unless I dropped down to first gear! How did you do that?"

All three of them were waiting for my response, so I decided to be honest. "You have to know your car and trust your car first before you can push yourself to the limit. After you've achieved that, learning the other skills, like drifting, is merely a small step up from child's play."

It felt somewhat odd hearing all those words of wisdom coming out of my mouth. Because of my brash nature, Kyouichi often said I was an idiot, a dumbass, or anything remotely derogatory that was meant to convey my simple-mindedness. Of course, Kyouichi was the leader of Emperor, and you didn't get very far by contradicting the leader without any solid backing. But then… in this instance, _I'm_ the team leader… so they're relying on _me_ for words of wisdom. And when it all boiled down… I hadn't a single clue on how to train three newbies in the ways of road racing…

Oh God, what have I gotten myself into?

---

And so ends Chapter Three…

I deliberately chose Happogahara as a track because from what I know; it's in Tochigi, so it's not very far for them; the other familiar courses are all home courses for other teams; and based on my knowledge of the course from Arcade Stage and Battle Gear 3, the course is technical enough to pose a challenge for the racers of Evo Prime. I could've made my own track, but I wanted to keep it real to the actual scenery of Tochigi, which is why I chose an existing track.

I don't think I've omitted anything, but if I do, don't hesitate to mention it. I'm fairly open-minded :)

-BoomChish


	4. CH4: Don't Stand So Close

Well, aren't I going fast again with the updates? Here's Chapter Four, all lined up and ready to go.

I won't bother with the disclaimer this time. If you've read this far, then you've read my disclaimer.

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Four

Don't Stand So Close

As the days and weeks flew by, I'd wondered indeed what I had gotten myself into. It was extremely difficult to train these guys (well, guys and girl) how to become road racers. First off, Alex was afraid of sharp hairpins. He would literally drop down to first and brake until he'd be running at twenty miles per hour… sometimes less. I'd keep drilling into him how important it was to learn how to trust his car, but he just wasn't progressing well. He'd later told me how when he was a little boy, he and his dad had been in a car accident and his dad had been gravely injured. He'd survived, but the experience was still fresh in Alex's mind. I respected that and told him that I understood his fear, but if he wanted to become a good road racer, he'd have to overcome it eventually. But I reassured him that I'd let him take it one step at a time, in consideration for his past experience.

Jin was the exact opposite of Alex. He'd go _too fast_ into the corners, often hitting the wall and damaging his car, or spinning out of control. Miyoko let him have it whenever he'd have to get his Evo repaired. I think the mechanics that Miyoko had employed were happy with Jin's behaviour. More crashes meant more work… and more work for Ieyasu-chan equaled more money for them, especially since she'd insist that the repairs be done as soon as possible. Understandably, Miyoko didn't seem too happy with having to pay for the accidents all the time. In my case, I warned him about the evils of being _too_ trustworthy of his car, namely the idea that because you're so in tune with your car, you're virtually indestructible. Well, no one's indestructible, not even the best drivers. It came to the point where I had to wonder whether Jin was trying too hard to be exactly like me. And if he was… then holy crap, I've gotta slow down and take things one by one.

And then there was Miyoko. At least I didn't have too many problems with her, skill-wise. Out of the three of them, she was coming along fine. She'd even upgraded to drifting without the hand brake in low gears. My only problem with her was her constant defiance towards me. She _always_ had to have the last word, even if I was one hundred percent in the right. (Which, ironically enough, is very rare for me) For example, I tried to teach her the benefits of using her right foot for both accelerating and braking, but she insisted upon arguing with me that left foot braking was the superior skill.

"Look, the reason why I'm saying right foot braking is better is simply because once you master that, you can move up to the heel-toe technique, in which your left foot is solely used for the clutch and you quickly alternate between brake and gas with your right when taking on certain turns. Makes you go faster in the corners," I'd say to her.

"If you're over-reliant on your right foot for most of the work while driving, your foot will eventually become exhausted and your acceleration and braking will be impeded," she'd argue. A weak sally, but she wouldn't back down.

"That's why racing is more than just about who's got the best car and who's got the most skill. It's also about endurance. If you have more endurance, you last longer and have more power to outwit and outrun your opponent."

Oh, I almost forgot… Don't _ever_ get so embroiled in an argument with Miyoko that you get the urge to whack her across the head. It only makes her even more angry with you _and_ it tests out her extremely fast reflexes. One moment, you could be screaming at her with your hand raising itself against your will to hit her… the next moment, you'll be bent double, clutching your nuts and moaning in pain, because she laid a swift low hook to the family jewels.

Alex and Jin seemed to find my confrontations with Miyoko wildly amusing and would try their best to be discreetly present at each one. I say discreetly, because the one time they were visibly present, and Miyoko got angry at them as well for laughing at our argument, then stormed out of the room, slamming every door within her reach along the way.

:"My God, she's like on PMS twenty-four seven," I muttered as soon as she was out of earshot.

Jin shook his head as he and Alex came out of their hiding place. "I hate to be blunt with you, aniki, but it only seems to be around you." He then chuckled. "What exactly do you keep _doing_ to make her so angry at you all the time?"

"I don't _do_ anything to make her angry at me!" I retorted furiously. "I just tell her how things are and she just gets angry at me very fast." It was my turn to shake my head, then I faced both my brother and Alex. "Okay guys, seriously… _how_ do you guys get along with her so well?"

Alex shrugged. "It's no secret, Seiji. Girls like Miyoko don't like being dominated and shot down all the time. From time to time, you have to let her win. It makes her feel important." Makes her feel important, my ass. She's the daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu. How more important can she _be?_

He made a sweeping gesture at the house. "Ever wonder why Miyoko doesn't have any female housemates? Has it ever crossed your mind that aside from her, there are only guys here? Even Sparky's male, and he's just a dog." He waited for my response, and when it didn't come, he continued, "It's because girls hate Miyoko. They think she's a veritable bitch."

"Well, gee, that goes without saying," I answered snidely.

"Be nice, aniki. She has some redeeming qualities," my brother chastised before he continued on, "You've never met old man Hiroji, so you don't understand. If you think Miyoko's a bitch, then Hiroji is the self-proclaimed overlord of bitchiness." He then sat down on the couch, and Alex and I followed, whereupon we also sat down.

Jin continued his story; "Imagine having to grow up with a father who, no matter what you achieved, always told you that you were an idiot and wouldn't stop putting you down. Furthermore, imagine how you'd feel if you were the eldest child and even though you were the overachiever and your younger sibling was the underachiever, your father would always favor your younger sibling."

"Your point being? Otousan did that to me with you and Shizuka when we were younger," I'd responded. Jin scoffed at that.

"You were never an overachiever in school, aniki. Face it; your grades were average at best."

"Shut up," I growled. Alex merely chuckled at our exchange and continued the story.

"Anyway, not only that, but Miyoko's parents got divorced when she was about five and her younger sister Yumiko was two and a half, and her father remarried. Her stepmother got pregnant a year later and gave birth to a son, Hyousuke. There's a rumor within her father's company that Miyoko will only be heir presumptive during the time of Hyousuke's minority. That when her stepbrother turns twenty-one, Miyoko will be stripped of her birthright, regardless of all the work and effort she's put into training herself to become head of the company." He waited for that information to sink through before he went on; "How would you feel if, after all the work you'd put into becoming suitable for the responsibility of running a highly important company, it was all stripped away from you all because you're a female? That's the one thing that Miyoko stresses about every day and that's why she's easy to anger."

Wow… that was a lot to take in at once. "See, if I'd known this beforehand, I'd be less critical of her and her behaviour," I answered smugly.

"All you had to do was ask, aniki. We would've been glad to tell, and I'm sure Miyoko wouldn't mind telling you the story herself… though she does have the tendency to cry whenever she mentions her mother or her sister. She hasn't seen them in ages and no matter how often she tries to contact them, there's no answer."

"Wait… why not?" I demanded.

"When her parents got divorced, the stipulation of the agreement was that her mother would get Yumiko and her father would get Miyoko. It's no secret that her mother absolutely detests Hiroji now, and it's a fair guess that Yumiko shares her mother's sentiment. And since Miyoko went with Hiroji… you can figure out the rest yourself," Alex explained.

The more they explained to me the story of Miyoko's life, the guiltier I felt at getting angry at her for her brash nature. Even I'd be a complete ass if I'd lived under those circumstances. After all, Jin and I may not have been always smiling and skipping across country meadows hand in hand when we were younger, but we still got along, despite our arguments.

I let out a sigh. "Hey, thanks for telling me all of this. I think… I think I'm gonna go and apologize to her now."

Jin raised his eyebrows. "Really? Wow, that's more than you used to do with me, aniki! I remember when we used to get into fights, you'd _never_ apologize and I'd usually end up apologizing just because I didn't want otousan to get mad at me!"

I shook my head and laughed. "Oh, shut up, Jin."

As I cautiously approached Miyoko's room, I'd wondered whether my idea to apologize to her was a smart one. For all I know, she could still be angry with me. But I had to try. Her bedroom door was slightly ajar, so I knocked on the door and heard a faint, "Come in."

I pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Hey Miyoko? I-" I stopped as I saw the two huge suitcases open on her bed, both filled with clothes. Miyoko turned around to look at me and I blurted out, "You're not leaving just because we got into an argument, are you? Because if you are, I'm really sorry. Jin and Alex told me the whole story about you and your father, and-" Her silence made me stop.

She stared at me for one solemn moment before she started to laugh. But it was a sad laugh. "No, no. Seiji, it's all right. I'm not leaving because I'm angry with you. If I _was_ that angry with you, I'd tell _you_ to pack your things, since this is my house." She laughed that sad laugh again. "No, I got a phone call from my father. He wants me to go to Tokyo for two weeks for some sort of business conference. I have to be there at the latest tomorrow night, so I'm going to leave tomorrow morning at dawn. If I drive fast, I should get there in no time." She snapped the lid shut on one of her suitcases.

"Business conference?" I queried as I made a face.

Miyoko shrugged. "Who knows? All I know is that when Hiroji Ieyasu summons you, it'd be best to come running as soon as possible if you want to stay in his good graces. And me being his eldest daughter, I'm no exception to that rule." She let out a sigh. "I guess I'm going to fall two weeks behind in my training, huh?"

I inclined my head. "Not really." Her eyebrows shot up at that. "To be honest, you're far ahead of both Alex and Jin, skill-wise. Granted, we haven't been seeing things eye to eye lately, but you're coming along nicely when it comes to learning about drift techniques and racing. Maybe by the time you get back, Alex and Jin will have caught up to you, but the way I see it, that's wishful thinking. Alex needs to get over his fear of sharp corners and Jin needs to stop playing bumper cars on the road."

She stared at me before she started to chuckle. This one, however, was a genuine chuckle of amusement. "This is a first - you're berating Alex and Jin's shortcomings to me. I'd have thought it's usually the other way around."

"Well, granted, we've been in massive conflict most of the time, but hey… I say it as I see it. And considering our constant bickering, you do too." Seeing her hesitance, I walked over to her and put an arm around her. "Hey… You have a good time in Tokyo, okay? The boys and I will be waiting for you to return." When she nodded, I turned to leave. Before I got to the door, I heard her say my name, so I turned around one more time.

"I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you. I'll try harder next time. To be nice, I mean."

I knew she was being sincere this time, but I laughed nevertheless. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault. After all," here, I pointed to myself and smiled broadly, "I'm Seiji Iwaki. Everything is _my_ fault." With that, I walked out of her room, closing the door behind me, but I wasn't fast enough and I heard her burst into gales of laughter.

Well… at least we're getting somewhere… She's not really so bad if you give her a chance.

---

So… they're finally coming to an agreement on things. Well, well, well…

Yes, this chapter seems to be sappier than the others, mainly because I decided to focus on Miyoko's background, so that we could have more insight into _why_ she's a spoiled bitch. Considering her father never really acknowledges her no matter how hard she achieves, you sort of get the idea that all he does is shove a house, a nice car and limitless credit cards in her face, and calls himself a doting parent. In short, Miyoko has all the money in the world (well, her world anyway) at her fingertips, but she doesn't really have someone who cares about her, save for Alex and Jin and now Seiji. The one parent she loves and misses wants nothing to do with her, as does her only full blood sibling. That's a lot to make someone very angry at nearly everything.

The irony of the " always smiling and skipping across country meadows hand in hand" allusion is that they're in Japan and there aren't many country meadows there, to my knowledge. It would have been more suitable for Alex to make such an allusion, since he's an American and in America, there is more country meadows filled with buttercups and sunflowers and little happy bunnies and pretty little butterflies (man am I ever going off topic here), but I just wanted to make it funnier so I let Seiji make the allusion instead.

You'll notice that I've mentioned that Seiji and Jin have a sister, Shizuka. Her role as of now is merely to serve as a filler, but whether I may bring her character into full swing is still questionable. I put her there because there's a six-year age difference between Seiji and Jin, so if it were only the two of them in the Iwaki family, it would beg the question of why is there such a huge age gap between both boys. Shizuka is ideally smack in between both of them; three years younger than Seiji and three years older than Jin, so that would place her at twenty-six. But like I said, I may not actually ever use her as a physical character in the story, so her role is extremely minimal.

-BoomChish


	5. CH5: Remember Me

I'm back again with Chapter Five ready to go. Damn, I could sure go for something seriously greasy right about now…

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Five

Remember Me

Every time we organized time trials on Happogahara, we made sure to keep watchmen on both sides so as to alert us as to any oncoming traffic. It was somewhat heartwarming, and somewhat not, to see the amount of wannabe racers and hangers-on who showed up whenever our team came to Happo for a time trial run. Most of them were newbies from the area, but some of them remembered me from my time as the second-best driver of Emperor. It was from them that Jin and Alex found out about my past.

"No way, aniki! How come you never told us you used to be a member of the Irohazaka Emperors? That's so cool!" Jin exclaimed.

"No wonder you're so good at road racing!" Alex chimed in.

I had to shake my head at their praise. "Being a member of Emperor was _not_ cool, now that I think of it. Kyouichi Sudou demands perfection from his teammates. The slightest slip-up and he'll always regard you as a stupid moron. Which is what happened to me. That's why I retired; I couldn't take any more of his bullshit." I omitted the fact that, after my loss to Fujiwara, my winning streak just went down the drain. But Alex and Jin didn't seem to mind, or care about my previous win-loss record. To them, as long as I was their leader and their mentor, they had nothing else to worry about.

Fortunately, Alex began to get over his fear of sharp turns. He was now capable of attacking most corners at second gear and was working his way up on taking some of them at third gear. I was suitably impressed by his skills. He was coming along nicely. As for Jin, he also learned how to stay off the walls while driving fast. Actually, for that, I hate admitting this, but I'd asked some of the spectators to stand _in front _of the guardrails, so that if Jin wanted to avoid hitting people, he'd have to stay off the walls. Very few of them agreed, but it worked. Not only did Jin learn how to keep his car positioned properly; he now knew how to avoid the guardrails. Oh yeah, and no one was hurt, of course. I made sure of that personally.

The only thing that was missing was Miyoko's progression. Since she'd left for Tokyo two weeks ago, we hadn't heard a single thing from her. I guess her father was keeping her busy. Then, one day, she'd called and said that she'd be arriving that night. I reassured her that we'd be waiting for her, then we went to Happogahara for our routine time trial.

That night was a memorable one in two ways. First off, we were all set to start, and then we got a message from one of the watchmen stationed at the outbound finish line, where we were waiting.

"Iwaki-san! I've got bad news for you! Emperor is coming!"

_Oh joy…_

I hadn't seen Kyouichi and the other Emperor guys in months. If they're on their way, it obviously meant one thing; that the fame of Evo Prime's slow ascension caught their attention, so they decided to check us out for size. Not that we'd make a good impression on Kyouichi anyway… he was trained in the ways of a rally racer… so unless they measure up to his standards, they don't measure at all. And out of the four of us (I should say three of us now, since Miyoko was absent), only I stood a ghost of a chance against Kyouichi should he decide to challenge us.

And I wasn't even much of a challenge to Kyouichi anyway. He'd taught me everything I knew.

There was nothing left for me to do but wait for Emperor to arrive. Alex was pacing around nervously and Jin kept poking me with his elbow asking me stupid questions, like "Oh my God, aniki… Are they going to challenge us to a race? Why are they here? We're not ready yet! Oh my God, we're not ready yet!" he fretted.

I elbowed him fiercely. "Stop worrying about it, Jin. I'll take care of everything."

Eventually, we saw the oppressive headlights of Kyouichi's black Evo III, followed by the other Evos that formed the legion that was the Irohazaka Emperors. As I watched them approach us, I had to wonder; who exactly did Kyouichi appoint as second-in-command after my dismissal? As far as I remembered, the lesser members couldn't keep up with me if I pushed myself to my limits, so who was eligible enough to take my place? Assuming he'd even bothered to replace me.

I watched impassively as they all slowed down off to the side, except for Kyouichi, who blocked the centre of the road with his Evo. He then got out; his dark eyes focused squarely on me.

"So… we meet again."

I didn't even dignify him with a response. Until he told me why he was here, I had nothing to say.

Kyouichi went on, his voice calm, "Well, well… after being thrown out of Emperor, you decide to go your own way and start your own all-Evo group, I see?" His gaze fell insolently on Jin and Alex's cars, and then he stared back at me. "All their Evos are the newer models… those rely more on computer work than manual work… Did you really think that you'd be able to surpass Emperor with what you have now?"

"My intention was to surpass no one," I answered curtly. "My brother and his friends merely wanted guidance in forming their own racing team. This is where I came into the picture, and this is where I'll stay until they've sufficiently gathered enough skill to go about on their own."

"Friends?" Kyouichi repeated rudely. "Seems to me that aside from your brother, there's only one of them… so why the clever use of the plural?"

Jin lost his temper. "There's another member who's not here at the moment! How dare you-"

"Shut up, Jin," I snapped, my gaze never breaking from Kyouichi's. Finally, I asked the one question that Jin, Alex and I wanted an answer for; "Why are you here?"

Kyouichi spread his arms wide. "We-ell, I'd simply heard that you'd formed your own team based in Happogahara, and I just decided to stop by and see what the commotion was all about. No harm in that, right? Or am I not welcome?"

I shrugged in dismissal. "As long as you don't interfere with our time trial, I couldn't care less if you go or stay." At least I was honest about that.

Alex looked like he was about to have an apoplexy. "Seiji…" he hissed.

I shot both him and my brother a deadly look. "Can it. There's nothing we can do, okay? Just deal with it," I retorted as quietly as possible so that Kyouichi couldn't hear me. I then turned to face Jin and Alex. "I'll start us off. I'll send a signal to the watchmen at the finish line to send a message back here for you guys to start, okay?"

"Okay," both of them agreed, however grudgingly.

I got into my car and waited for the timekeeper to give me the signal to go. When the signal was dropped, I started off. In my rearview mirror, I could see Jin and Alex keeping to themselves, staying a nice distance away from Kyouichi and the rest of Emperor. I don't think either of them would want to interact with Kyouichi unless I was there, else something bad could happen. On the other hand, I fervently hoped that Kyouichi wouldn't heckle them too much. Knowing Jin, he has more of a sense of anger management, but when he hit his boiling point, he went straight for the physical attack. And I know that Jin and Alex alone wouldn't be able to survive an onslaught from Emperor if it came.

I tried my best to push it far out of my mind and continued on my driving at hand. Judging by the smoothness of my drifting this time around, I was making good progress myself. Maybe I'd beat my old record. All I could do was try… until I saw the pair of headlights that appeared like a phantom out of nowhere.

_What the hell? I thought I told them to wait for the signal!_ This wasn't funny at all; I didn't like the extra pressure when doing a time trial, and they knew this. If they were following me, it either meant one thing… that Kyouichi had upset them to the point that they came after me. But something wasn't right…

The headlights were familiar… distinctively those of a Lan Evo… but the body of the car wasn't blue… _or_ yellow, so it wasn't Jin or Alex. Hell, it wasn't even black, so it couldn't be Kyouichi. As a matter of fact… it was… _red_… Which meant…

_Miyoko?!_

I drifted into the next sharp curve as fluidly as possible, and was shocked to see her mimic my exact move and drift behind me, in a flawlessly executed double drift for both of us.

Had she been practicing while in Tokyo?

I tried my best to shake her off, to gain as much speed in the corners and take off on the straights, but she kept close on my backside. How could this be? She wasn't _this_ good when she left two weeks ago. Unless she _had_ been practicing, in which case… Damn!

No matter what I did, she managed to copy with ease. I could feel my blood boiling, as it often did when I was being pressured from behind. But when I'd chanced a glance at my rearview mirror again, she was gone. The oppressive glare of her headlights had vanished. Then, I was able to calm down. So I _had_ outrun her. She wasn't as good as I thought she'd become.

Or so I thought.

The next thing I knew, I saw her headlights reappear out of nowhere… _next to me_. As I glanced in my side mirror, I could see her accelerating and pulling up alongside me. This had to be some sort of joke! It's the same way I'd lost against Fujiwara on his home track, Akina! And now I was losing to my own teammate on Happo thanks to the same method!

Damn it!

The next corner was coming up fast. And Miyoko now had the inside. She edged herself ahead just enough to give her room to execute her drift… and like the rest, it was flawlessly performed. Now I was thoroughly convinced that she'd been practicing. The only question is: where in Tokyo? And with who? Because the drift she'd pulled off wasn't something I knew how to do.

The finish line was approaching. Miyoko kept her lead well and as she passed the finish line, she pulled over to the side and waited for me to pull over as well before she emerged from her car.

As soon as I got out, I ran over to her. "How the hell did you do all that stuff back there? That was amazing! I couldn't even do that if I tried. Did you practice somewhere in Tokyo while you were away?"

She stared at me before she merely said, "You said you'd wait for me when I came back. When I got home, no one was there, so I figured you'd all be here at Happogahara. So I just unpacked my stuff, then came here right away."

"Alex and Jin are still at the beginning of the inbound path. Didn't you see them?"

Miyoko shook her head. "When I didn't see your car, I figured you'd gone on a time trial, so I went after you. You said you'd wait for me," she repeated, somewhat childishly. And no matter how juvenile her complaint seemed, she was right. I _had_ promised that we'd be waiting for her… although we didn't specify _where_ we'd be waiting for her. But I decided not to antagonize her. Especially not if I wanted to find out where she'd learned how to pull off a drift of that caliber.

There was the telltale growl of approaching Evos, so I knew Alex and Jin had probably sprung into high gear and took off after me as soon as they saw Miyoko zip past them. But then I heard the familiar gunshot sounds of Kyouichi's misfiring system. Crap, not now. His black Evo came into view, followed by Alex and Jin several meters down. He also pulled off to the side behind my car and got out, careless of whatever else may occur. Miyoko eyed him warily, then she narrowed her eyes as he came closer.

"Kyouichi Sudou… I'd heard of you," she muttered darkly.

Kyouichi, on the other hand, wasn't so smug. "Wh… what the hell? Seiji, what in the hell is Hiroji Ieyasu's daughter doing here? With you?"

I looked over at Miyoko, who was still eyeing Kyouichi suspiciously, then at Alex and Jin, who had just parked their cars and were running up to us. Finally, I looked at Kyouichi again.

"Miyoko's my third teammate… the other person I was referring to when I spoke of my brother and his _friends_," I answered, letting that last word sink in.

Kyouichi looked at Miyoko, then at me. Finally, his expression reverted to his old calm manner. "So… I'll bet you thought that with Ieyasu-chan's patronage, you could buy your way into the hall of fame of road racers, eh? Well, you know very well that money only pays for car maintenance, and your car is only as good as your skill…" He then stabbed a finger in the air towards me. "No matter how much money you have on your side, your skill will never be enough to defeat Emperor!" And with that, he got back into his Evo III and drove off.

"Arrogant sonofabitch. I can finally see why you left Emperor with little qualms… although doesn't explain why you put up with that," she growled angrily.

"Hey, I put up with _you_, didn't I?" I joked, and recoiled when I saw her venomous glare. "Sorry, I was only kidding. In any case, like I'd said to Jin and Alex, Kyouichi isn't someone you would contradict, not if you wanted to stay on his team. And back then, I wanted to remain in Emperor more than anything."

"I see…" Her voice was low.

Alex and Jin had something else on their minds. "Miyo, what the hell? Didn't you see us at the starting line? You just zipped past us as if we didn't exist! Why didn't you slow down?"

She didn't reply; she merely stared at where Kyouichi had gone. I made a face and shook my head. "Stuff happens, whatever. Now, I thought you guys wanted to complete your time trial," I declared, shifting their attention away from Miyoko's unexpected arrival. But I knew that eventually, I'd have to get her to tell me how she'd improved so much in such a short amount of time.

It was almost impossible to achieve such skill in two weeks… How did she do it?

---

Hoo boy…

Yes, Kyouichi makes his first physical appearance here. Since he's heard of Seiji's new team and was responsible for his dismissal from Emperor, naturally he'd stop by eventually to see what the fuss is all about. After all, it's highly unlikely that something like Seiji's new racing team would pass by unnoticed by Kyouichi… Much like Miyoko, Kyouichi's got his own sources of information, especially when it concerns the road-racing world. But don't you fret; in Initial D, you can't have Seiji without Kyouichi, so Emperor will come back… sooner or later…

I am aware of the fact that two weeks is entirely too short of a time span in which Miyoko could learn all those tactics in drifting. Simply put, this story is being told from Seiji's point of view, so everything explained and described is how _he_ sees it. As far as anyone could know, maybe Miyoko had her skills beforehand, but didn't want to parade them in front of Alex and Jin, (who are actually inferior in skill to her) so as not to intimidate them. In any case, it'll all be explained later on. As long as I remember one thing; no matter what happens, if Project D comes into the picture, they must win. Why?

If you've been following the storyline of Initial D, you'll understand why.

-BoomChish


	6. CH6: Take Me Back To Tokyo

Well, lo and behold, Chapter Six is now ready for your viewing pleasure! Thanks to continued support from Viewers Like You! /PBS

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Six

Take Me Back To Tokyo

"Okay Miyoko, you better start talking. Where the hell did you learn how to drive like that? And who taught you?" I demanded. All four of us were sitting at the dining table the following morning, eating a hearty North American breakfast courtesy of Alex. When we'd gotten home that night, Miyoko swiftly avoided all our questions and went to her room to sleep. We decided not to bug her then, but that night, I was unable to sleep, trying to figure out how the hell she'd pulled off a drift of that caliber. It just kept plaguing me all night long. So maybe she didn't tell me yesterday. Well, she's sure as hell gonna tell me today. Whether she likes it or not.

She looked over at me innocently. "Like what?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Don't toy with me, woman," I answered harshly. "You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Alex exchanged a quick glance at Jin, then both of them looked at Miyoko and me before they went back to eating their food.

Miyoko cocked her head to one side, then said, "All I did was copy what you did… I guess my reflexes have improved… And I'd thought that that's an important factor in road racing… fast reflexes."

I slammed my palms down on the table, making all the dishes rattle. Jin literally jumped out of his seat and all but shouted at me, "Aniki! Calm down!" Alex had a fork halfway in his mouth and just sat there frozen to the spot, his eyes staring at me in shock.

"That drift you pulled off when you passed me was something I couldn't do… You couldn't have possibly picked up a technique like that from me." I did my best to control my anger so that I wouldn't spur her on, but I couldn't help it; I wanted answers and her reluctance was making me seethe inside.

She twirled a lock of hair around her finger and said in singsong, "I have my sources…"

I lost it. "Miyoko, you're not making this any easier for me, damnit!" I roared.

Miyoko lost her playful disposition and her green eyes hardened. "Fine," she answered curtly. I could tell that the one thing she wanted more than anything just then was to pick up the nearest utensil and stab me with it. Repeatedly. But she controlled herself rather well. "Do you really want to know?" She put down her fork and cleared her throat. Alex, Jin and I leaned forward to absorb her every word.

"I met with a… friend in Tokyo… and I asked him a few questions about road racing. He's very knowledgeable about that stuff, you know… and… He told me some things that I should probably try out on Happo… Which is what I did."

"That's it?" Alex sounded disappointed.

I eyed her suspiciously. "Who's this friend of yours?"

"Someone I met just there while visiting. My stepbrother suggested I speak with him, and that's what I did," she answered flippantly. Jin raised an eyebrow skeptically, but didn't push further, as did Alex. But the look in her eyes told me otherwise; that she wasn't telling the whole story. And I wouldn't be satisfied until I had the whole story. After all, as team leader, it's my responsibility to know exactly how all my team members progressed. And comparing Miyoko two weeks ago to now, there was definitely something that changed.

Something drastic.

I decided not to press the matter further and the four of us finished our breakfast in silence.

Once that was done with, Jin left to do the dishes, while Alex took Sparky for a walk around the neighborhood. Miyoko elected to return to her room, but I followed her, with the intent of finding out who the heck it was she'd met in Tokyo who'd caused her to improve her skills so exorbitantly.

"You're awfully persistent," she'd observed with a certain hint of annoyance as I'd perched myself on the edge of her bed as she sat down at her desk.

"So glad you've finally noticed. As for your friend in Tokyo… who is he?"

"What makes you so sure it's a he?" she retaliated defensively.

I shrugged. "Or she. Whatever."

Miyoko rolled her eyes. "It's a he, in any case. Hyousuke met him a while ago and when I came into town, he'd told me that I should go see him, because if there's one person who knew a lot about road racing, it'd be him."

I was starting to get impatient. "_Who_ is this guy?"

She sighed and reached for one of her photo albums that was nestled on the bookshelf within her reach. When she'd extracted it from the case, she flipped to a certain photo and pulled it out before she handed it to me. "This man here." I took it from her and casually glanced at it, then I did a double take and dropped it like a hot potato.

"Wh… what the hell? Is this some kind of a joke?" I demanded. For in the photo, Miyoko was standing, smiling broadly and giving a peace sign… next to the exalted Keiichi Tsuchiya, the Drift King himself. It was even autographed, for crying out loud.

She shook her head. "Nope. My stepbrother introduced me to Tsuchiya-san and told him about my interest in road racing. I'd asked him a few questions about my Evo and whether it'd be possible for me to achieve certain skills with it. He told me about how an internal computer mostly controls the Evo VII's performance, so it would be harder to perform certain moves which are easier to achieve with earlier model cars. Then he'd told me of a couple of things he'd tried when he'd tested out the Evo VII himself a while back. He's a very understanding man."

"And what exactly was _that_ supposed to mean?"

Miyoko brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. "It meant exactly what I'd intended it to mean. When I'd explained to him my dilemma with road racing, he'd told me that considering my experience, I was at a fairly decent level. Then he told me some things I could try with my Evo, considering its limitations. After I'd seen him, I searched out a mountain pass in Tokyo and started practicing there in my spare time. Of course, I wasn't doing much progress there, so when I tried again while chasing you on Happo, I didn't expect to do so well. Was I wrong to do that, Seiji?" she queried, half testing me, half in earnest.

And yet again, she had her way of making me feel like a complete moron. "Not at all, Miyoko. That was very good. Of course, you didn't have to practice while away, but at least you did because you wanted to. That's the most important thing."

She grinned broadly. "Thanks. I knew you'd understand." She then brought her knees up to her chin and hugged them. "Anyway… why did Kyouichi Sudou pass by last night?"

"Well, from what he'd told me, it's because he'd heard of Evo Prime's practices on Happo, and when he'd heard that I was the team leader, he decided to see for himself. I guess you gave him one heck of a startle when you shot past him the way you did."

"Not like I care. He's an ass," she declared, then she tilted her head to one side. "Tell me something, Seiji… why'd you join Emperor in the first place?"

That made me stop and think for a bit. It had been a long while since I'd thought about my beginnings in Emperor, but Miyoko is a part of my new team now, and inasmuch, she had a right to know, as did Alex and Jin. I made a mental note to tell them myself later.

I began, "Well, it happened when Kyouichi had just graduated from Todo Racing School, over at Enna Pass. Back then, I'd used to go and watch the students practice, wishing that I could one day be something like them. It was wishful thinking, especially since I couldn't afford to study at Todo Racing School. He'd gone the way of rally, but also raced on the streets occasionally. On those occasions, I'd go and watch him race. Seeing him tackle the best of the best gave me the incentive to try my best as well. Lo and behold, I'd improved so well that I'd actually caught his attention. So when he'd approached me and told me that, in addition to retiring from the rally and going back to street racing, he wanted to form an all-Evo team on Irohazaka and that he'd wanted me in the team. Naturally, the honor was so much back then that I'd jumped at the chance. When Kyouichi was done recruiting all the members in Emperor that he felt we'd needed, he started pitting us against each other in time attacks on Irohazaka's downhill to see who'd be his second-in-command."

"And let me guess… You'd outranked everyone else, right?" Miyoko guessed.

I smirked at that. "Wrong." Her eyes widened questioningly at that. "There was someone else who'd been far superior to me, but he'd gotten too full of himself after a while and thought that he was much better than Kyouichi. And so he'd gone and challenged Kyouichi to a do-or-die race on Irohazaka downhill. Stipulations were simple; if he'd lost, he'd have to quit Emperor, but if he'd won, he'd take over as leader and Kyouichi would have to quit. Well, I guess the outcome was quite simple… and when he'd gone, I was next in line… and so I became second-in-command."

She appeared to mull over my words. "So… back then, it seemed like a glamorous thing to do, right? Be a member of Emperor, I mean."

"In the Tochigi road racing scene, yes it was. Of course, then came that one day where Kyouichi lost to Ryousuke Takahashi and had his winning streak broken for the first time. Since then, he became obsessed with being the absolute best of the best, finally resulting in our going to Gunma to try and dominate them." Here, I shrugged helplessly, palms turned up. "And hence I'd encountered my first loss ever to Fujiwara. Things just sort of went downhill from there…"

She was staring mindlessly at a blank space on the floor. "Takumi Fujiwara is that good, isn't he?"

I let out a sigh. "Miyoko… that boy is something else altogether. He's got _something_… I can't explain it… but if there's anyone who's the best of the best out there, it's that boy. The only time he'd ever lost a race was to Kyouichi, and that was only because his engine blew. But he'd even gone back and avenged his loss on Irohazaka, no less." I took a deep breath before I continued, "Listen to me, Miyoko. No matter how good you become… do me a favor… don't _ever_ make the assumption that you're good enough to dominate over Takumi Fujiwara in a downhill battle. Trust me; he'll find a way to destroy you instead. And you'll definitely feel that loss for years to come. It's been well over a year, almost two since I'd lost to him on Mt. Akina in Gunma… and to this day, I still feel the disappointment I felt in myself when I'd realized that I'd been completely decimated."

When I'd glanced at her, I saw that she was staring right at me, her eyes wide and questioning. "No matter how good I become… he'll always be better?" She then scoffed. "But that goes for nearly everything, Seiji! There'll always be someone better than you, no matter what! Why, I'll bet you my entire life's savings that Fujiwara even has someone who can best him in a downhill race."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Of course I don't doubt that for one second, my dear. After all, he had to have learned those god-like skills _somewhere_. I doubt he'd gotten his driver's license and sat his ass down in his car, already possessing the skills to destroy nearly every racer he came in contact with." After that, I shook my head. "That's not my point, though. What I'm trying to say is; don't set your goals too high. You'll only end up disappointing yourself in the end."

Miyoko nodded once. "So I should just take things one step at a time. Maybe I'll be good enough to rival Fujiwara, maybe I'll be stuck where I am now, but we'll just have to wait and see, no?"

"That's the spirit!" I encouraged brightly, then I changed the subject. "So… how did the business meeting with your father go?"

Wrong thing to say. Her eyes clouded over and she said, "Fine." Just like that.

"I see…" I stood up and stretched a bit, before I picked up the discarded photo and handed it to her. "Well… I'll be off now…"

"Mm…" She merely nodded and did not look in my direction as she placed the photo down on her desk and stared at it blankly. I quietly made my way out of her room and closed the door behind me, whereupon I sighed. I guess things weren't going so well with her and her father. It made me wonder whether it may possibly affect her performance during a race.

Or, if in fact, it was her performance as a racer that was causing a strain between her father and herself. That would bode ill for her future.

I sincerely hoped not

---

So… Miyoko got some tips from the one and only Drift King himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya… Isn't that something?

In the part where I mention Tsuchiya-san telling Miyoko about how the Evo VII is mostly computer-run, I based that information on what he'd said in Best Motoring Vol. 5: Impreza Vs. Lancer - The Final Round -

In that DVD, there is a race between the Impreza WRX Spec C, the Evo VII, the GT-R R34, the GC8, the Evo V, the GDB and the Evo II. In this particular race, Tsuchiya was driving the Evo VII and throughout most of the race, you can hear him complaining, saying things like "Come on computer, turn this car around!" and "I'm bad with computer-run machines!" also, "I hate hi-tech cars!" Also, in the GDB, the driver Hattori-san watches Tsuchiya from behind and says, "Old models can give new cars a hard time by making minor modifications." In the end, Tsuchiya came in second, following Nakaya-san in the Spec C. (Hattori came in 3rd with the GDB, Kurosawa was in 4th with the GT-R, Yamaji was in 5th with the GC8, Takuya was in 6th with the Evo V, and the last guy… can't remember his name, but poor guy… came in last place with his Evo II.) All of them agreed that newer cars with their computers seemed to run better, but that it relied less on human manipulation.

Of course, in two weeks' time, Miyoko hadn't really improved. It was just that by a fluke, she'd managed to pull off the drift that she'd been practicing. Whether she'll be able to repeat the process is still under question.

-BoomChish


	7. CH7: Burning Desire 'Revised'

It's Chapter Seven! Lucky 7!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Seven

Burning Desire

The sun was rising in the eastern sky; a soft golden light bathing the neighborhood as it readied itself for another day. For me, another tedious day of work. Man, I hate work. If it weren't for the fact that I need the money, nevermind the fact that I _don't_ want to be dependent on Miyoko, I wouldn't work. Especially not at my jobs. My main job is working in the transport division at the local hospital. Basically, I stay in the transport room, waiting for a call from a nurse or an orderly to take a certain patient to and from their hospital room and take them to and from some other place. Like the operating room, or something like that. And trust me… some of those patients are very, very cranky. I've even been cussed out repeatedly by some, but since I'm not allowed to talk back or anything, I just keep my mouth shut and escort them to their designated location, then I return to the main transport room for the process to repeat itself. My other job depends on whether the hospital stores need someone to work the overnight shift, lifting, rearranging and documenting their stock. Usually in that case, the head of the stores department discusses terms with the head of the transport department before I'm assigned a shift. Either way, the overnight shift is much more preferable to the daytime transport shift, but while the pay is a wee bit more, the hours are much less. Which is why I rely on both jobs to support my income.

That morning, as I'd stepped out of the front door, keys in one hand and my lunch in the other, I ran into Alex, who'd just returned from his daily walk with Sparky. He was staring at my Evo with a strange look on his face, while Sparky merely sniffed around his ankles. He barked when I stepped out of the house, alerting Alex to my presence.

"Oh hey, Seiji. Going to work?"

"As always," I answered mournfully. He laughed at that heartily, then his expression reverted back to the previous one that graced his face. I looked at him with interest. "Anything wrong?"

"Not really… Just…" here, he paused to sigh, "Miyoko told me something about our Evos compared to yours… Is it true that an internal computer mostly runs the Evo VII, so it relies less on human manipulation? And that since your Evo is an earlier model, it relies heavily on how the driver operates it?"

I shook my head. "Mine has it too. As a matter of fact, I believe it started with the Evo IV. Though there is still a significant difference between my Evo and yours. For example, the Evo VII is at least fifty kilos heavier than its predecessors, sometimes more. But that's beside the point. Why do you ask?"

Alex looked thoughtful. "I was just thinking about what Kyouichi Sudou had said a few days ago… about how Jin, Miyoko and I could never stand to beat Emperor with what we have. Do you think he's right?"

"Alex… Don't let Kyouichi intimidate you into thinking you're inferior, okay? That was _my_ mistake, and I'd rather not have my team members suffer the same mistakes that I did." I waited for it to sink in before I continued, "Of course at the moment that he'd said those words, he had a point. But that's only because you three aren't skilled enough yet to take them on. However, if you keep practicing and improving your skill and your line, you'll be more than ready to let Kyouichi eat his words." As soon as I'd said it, I had to try hard not to laugh out loud. Here I was, encouraging my new teammates to literally make it their goal to destroy my old team leader on the streets.

And to think it was _me_ who told Miyoko not to set her goals too high!

Alex stared at my Evo one last time before he shrugged and nodded. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Seiji!"

I smiled and mock saluted him. "Don't mention it."

Sparky started sniffing around my feet, eventually wandering around my lunch bag, trying to paw at it. I held it out of his reach. "Hey, hey! That's my lunch, you rascal!"

He let out a plaintive whine and Alex laughed. "Guess he's hungry. I'll go and feed him." The both of them then proceeded up the front steps into the house. Alex paused on the front steps to say, "Well, have a nice day at work Seiji. Try not to work too hard," before he stepped inside the house, closing the door behind him. Try not to work too hard? That depends on the amount of patients I'll have to handle. In any case, I got into my Evo, started the engine and drove off to work.

Pretty much all of the guys at work know that I'm a road racer. Most of them came to that fateful practice several days ago, when Kyouichi made his appearance, and some of them used to come to the Emperor practices when I was a member of Emperor. Either way, when I got to work, they asked me questions at length about it.

"Man, I dunno about you Seiji, but I'd be scared shitless if I'd made my own team after leaving my old one and then my old team leader came hunting me down. How'd you remain all cool-like when Sudou showed up?" one of them asked.

I made a face. "I thought I'd told you several months ago… I didn't quit Emperor, I was thrown out for losing too many times. That's when I went to live with my younger brother, and it was him and his friends who wanted me in their team as their team leader. I had nothing to do with the formation of Evo Prime, you know. Either way, Kyouichi didn't show up to challenge my team, he just came to see what we were all about. That doesn't bother me at all. Now, if he'd come all the way from Irohazaka just to challenge one of my team members to a race, I'd be singing a completely different tune."

"Are any of them good enough to take on Emperor just yet? If not, whenever they are and they do go and challenge Emperor, do tell me. I wanna be there for sure!" another one spoke.

"Yeah, me too!" a third chimed in.

"_When_ they're good enough, I'll be sure to tell you guys. I know you wouldn't want to miss it for the world. But not just yet, seeing as they're not good enough yet," I answered calmly. Watching their faces light up with delight made me feel somewhat honored that even my coworkers admired my efforts to maintain my own team.

My euphoria was short-lived. One of the transport guys who was out on a call, Gennai, came back with some news - news which happened to be very bad for me - "Guys, you won't believe this… especially you, Seiji." He waited until he'd had all our attention before he continued, "I went to take a patient from the ER back to his room, and one of the nurses there told me that they'd just admitted a patient who'd been in a car accident…"

Car accident? _Oh no… please don't let it be…_

Gennai fixed me with a direct, solemn stare. I didn't say a word, but someone else did, "Well, speak up. Who is it?"

"Miyoko Ieyasu."

"No!" I sprang to my feet. "Impossible! How? She's a good driver! How could she get into a car accident?" My mind was racing, screaming _how can this happen? How?!_.

He shrugged. "From what the paramedics said, they'd found her car somewhat smashed against a guardrail. The damage isn't extensively serious, neither are her injuries, but she was unconscious when they pulled her out. With any luck, she'd-"

I didn't stay to hear the rest. I darted out of the transport room almost immediately and almost ran at top speed towards the emergency room, not bothering to take the elevator. Within five minutes, I was there. Just my luck, the goddamn orderlies wouldn't let me through.

"Sorry Seiji… Immediate family only. Those are the rules."

"But-!" I knew he was right though. Especially as an employee, I'm not allowed to break hospital rules. He sensed my distress and decided to reassure me. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, her injuries aren't too serious. A mild concussion, whiplash and a sprained shoulder, but otherwise, she's okay. Give her a few weeks to recover and she'll be back to her old self."

At least _that_ was reassuring. But it still didn't explain everything. "But I don't understand… I know her driving style… How did it happen? She wouldn't get into an accident for nothing." As soon as the words left my mouth, it made me wonder… _Did_ she end up crashing because she made a grave miscalculation in drifting? That was more Jin's style, not Miyoko's. I fervently hoped that it wasn't that.

The orderly shrugged. "Beats me. That's something you'd have to ask her yourself."

And I fully intended to do just that… as soon as they'd let me see her.

Knowing that I wouldn't get any more progress if I lingered there, I left and immediately went to a pay phone (my cell phone was always off in the hospital, considering hospital rules) and called home. It was Jin who answered, his jovial voice permeating the line. "Hi aniki! What's up?"

"Cut the cheery mood, Jin. Miyoko's been in an accident. She's at the ER right now."

"What! You can't be serious! What happened?" Jin demanded.

"I have no clue. I have to wait until the ER assigns her a room for recovery. When that happens, I intend to go visit her and ask her all about it."

"But can't you just go into the ER and see her there? After all, you work there!"

I smiled grimly at my brother's naivete. "Only immediate family members are allowed to see patients in the ER. Anyone else has to wait outside."

I heard Jin make a grumbling noise. "Couldn't you have said you're her boyfriend or her fiancé or something? I'm sure they'd have let you in under that pretext."

Her boyfriend? _Her fiancé? _I couldn't help but guffaw at that. "Like they'd fall for _that_ one! If anything, you or Alex could fool them with a stunt like that, but not me. They know me too well here." I let out a sigh. "In any case, we'll just have to wait and see."

Five minutes near the end of my shift, one of the orderlies who'd been at the ER came to see me at the transport room, with news for me. "Good news, Seiji. She's been assigned a room on the fourth floor of Medical. Room M-4-342. You can go see her now. She's resting and hopefully, she'll be out tomorrow, though she'll have to wear her neck brace and the sling for a week or two."

I thanked him profusely and made my way to the Medical wing of the hospital. On the way, I stopped off at the gift shop to get her a small bouquet of flowers (hey, after all, she _was_ hospitalized).

I paused briefly outside of Room M-4-342 before I stepped inside. She was lying down; the neck brace making her head appear smaller than it was. Her arm was also in a sling. She appeared to be sleeping, but when I came closer, she opened her eyes slowly.

"Seiji? Wha… wh… why am I here?" she demanded weakly.

I arranged the flowers on her bedside table before I pulled up a chair and sat down next to her bed. "That's a good question, Miyoko. What happened?"

"Mm…" She closed her eyes a bit and appeared to be deep in thought before she opened them again and spoke, "Well… I was driving… through Happo… taking a look around… since I normally see it in the night… and not the day… There was this… red car behind me… a… Honda Civic, I think…"

"A red Honda Civic?" I repeated. There were many models of Civics out there… Which one was it? "Did you see what kind of Civic it was? More importantly, was there a team sticker on it?"

"It was a hatchback… that I know… looked to be an SiRII…" She paused for a bit. "And I seem to remember… a dark sticker… Night… Night something… Ah, I don't remember exactly…"

"Well, no matter. We'll figure it out eventually… Now, what did the Civic do?" I wanted to make sure that whoever it was, it was their fault before I exacted the next part of my plot.

Miyoko closed her eyes in pain. "It… started to drive behind me… tapping my bumper… so I tried to move out of the way… but it followed me and kept tapping me… so finally, I slowed down enough to let it pass… That's how I saw the sticker… then it swerved in front of me, and suddenly braked… forcing me to brake as well… I kept trying to pass it, but it kept swerving in front of me, braking suddenly… Then when it finally took off, I was in the wrong lane before a turn… and a car was coming in the opposite direction, so I swerved out of the way… and hit the guardrail…" She opened her eyes again and suddenly her facial expression changed. "Seiji… are you… Are you going to track down the Civic and challenge him to a race? To avenge me?"

How did she know? I decided to be honest with her, "Yes. Of course I will, Miyoko. No one jerks around with my teammates and gets away with it," I answered firmly.

Her next response was surprising. "No. I want to challenge him."

"You're in no condition to do anything of that sort, missy." I patted her arm affectionately. "But if that's what you want, I'll let you go ahead. Just recover first, and then you can take him on whenever you please." I wasn't about to tell her, but I had _no_ intention of keeping that promise. Not this time. Miyoko looked at me hopefully then smiled weakly. I smiled back at her, then said, "My shift's almost over and I forgot something in my car. I'll just go and get it, and take it back to the transport room, then I'll be right back. I promise."

"Okay." She nodded once, then drifted off to sleep. I knew that Jin and Alex would be on their way right away after work, so I knew I shouldn't dally. I walked out of the hospital towards my car, my keys in my hand, wondering who the driver of that red Civic SiRII could be. And what team he was from.

When I got to my car, I had my keys ready to open my door when I suddenly froze. After all my time spent with Evo Prime, I'd never bothered to remove the upside down team stickers cut in half that were on my back wing. The teams that I'd defeated as a member of Emperor.

And there, on the back wing, cut in half and upside down, was a dark sticker. A dark sticker that said "Night Kids."

_Night Kids…_ A team from Gunma…

I'd remembered my match against their team leader, a seemingly foolish character by the name of Takeshi Nakazato, who drove a midnight black Nissan Skyline GT-R R32. It was an uphill match… and he'd taken the lead throughout the first part of it, but he'd lost control and hit the wall, while I'd passed him and claimed the victory. I knew it couldn't be him, because why would he go from a GT-R down to a crappy Civic? In addition to that, I had his team sticker. No, it had to be someone else on his team.

Someone with less honor in road racing than he had… than _anyone_ had.

I felt my blood begin to boil as I clutched my keys in my fist.

The Night Kids were going to pay for what they did to Miyoko…

And I was going to make sure of it!

---

Sudden braking and bumper tapping? Red Honda Civic SiRII? Night Kids? _Shingo_?!

Yep, who else could it be? None other than the Ratman himself, Shingo Shouji of the Night Kids. Now, the reason why I chose to bring in Shingo and the Night Kids is because the upcoming race is supposed to be one that cements Seiji's position as leader of Evo Prime. In addition to that, there is a reason why I decided to make Shingo the rat bastard here. If you compare Shingo and Seiji in the anime, most people disliked Seiji because when he'd win, he'd take their team sticker, cut it in half and paste it upside down on his car, in addition to having a cocky attitude. Well, Shingo had a cocky attitude too, but the main difference is that he's a character who'd actually go to the great length of forcing a driver off the road and hospitalizing them. Seiji, despite his cocky and arrogant attitude in the anime and manga, still had enough decency not to hurt the other drivers. (yes, I know that in Second Stage, when Kyouichi and Seiji visit Ryousuke on Akagi, after Takahashi leaves, Seiji wanted to run him over, but Kyouichi stopped him. Had it been Takeshi and Shingo, the same thing would've happened, except Shingo would've probably gone later on and attacked Ryousuke anyway without Takeshi's knowledge. Seiji would never go that far.)

I had a hell of a time trying to decide what Seiji's job was going to be. I knew I couldn't make it something too menial, because then how the heck would he be able to afford constant maintenance on his Evo? And despite a mechanic being a decent menial job, Seiji just doesn't strike me as the mechanical type. On the same note, Seiji doesn't strike me as someone with a higher paying job either, he seems a bit too simple for those types of jobs. In the end, I decided to give him the job(s) that my eldest brother currently has; hospital transport tech and stockroom worker. Both of his jobs pay decent money and one could make a living off of those salaries if budgeted properly. Plus, being a transport tech, one has to be strong and able-bodied, considering they have to move patients around and whatnot (they don't lift the patients; that's the nurses and the orderlies' jobs. Since the transport techs aren't insured for patients injuring themselves while they lift them, they're not allowed to). Seiji fits that description to a tee, which is why I felt the job was perfect for him. Plus, it's a job that's not too far-fetched anywhere, considering it's in a hospital.

EDIT: Here's where I made the correction concerning Seiji's Evo and the AYC system. Since Kyouichi's Evo III doesn't have the AYC controller, he basically has the right to say that the other Evos are inferior due to the computer, since his doesn't and it'd merely be his personal opinion. But since Seiji's _does_ have the AYC in his Evo, I made sure that he acknowledged that fact with Alex, and at the same time, mentions some of the real differences between the Evo IV and the Evo VII. (From what I've read up, the Evo VII is apparently one of the heavier Evos out there, but it doesn't have a significant effect on its performance)

-BoomChish


	8. CH8: Dogfight

Sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long. After DKW's review, I had to admit that he was right about Shingo and his antics, so I had to change it quite up a bit. Hope you like it!

… because I'm not too proud of this chapter myself… =

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Eight

Dogfight

When I'd returned to Miyoko's hospital room, Alex and Jin were already there. They stared at me as I stepped into the room. Miyoko, on the other hand, was sound asleep. I watched her for a moment before I approached the guys.

"What happened, aniki? Did you find out how she ended up in this situation?"

"Yes, I did. And you're not going to like it," I spoke in a low voice. Alex and Jin leaned in closer to hear what I had to say on the matter. As I relayed the whole story, adding what I'd figured out about the Night Kids, their expressions went from confusion to shock to complete outrage.

"The bastards… I can't believe they'd stoop so low as to do this to one of us! We never did anything to them!" Alex exclaimed hotly.

Jin looked at me. "Wait… Aniki, do you think that what happened to Miyo could be some sort of revenge exacted on you for humiliating them when you were in Emperor?"

At that, I had to shake my head. It was impossible. "It's way too late to avenge themselves for that. It was nearly a year ago, if not two. If it _was_ revenge, it would've been done a long time ago. Furthermore, how the hell could the Night Kids have found out about Evo Prime? It's not like we're exactly all that well known in Tochigi, much less Gunma. And the Night Kids are homebased on Mt. Myougi, in Gunma."

"Well, how did Emperor find out about us?" Alex retorted.

It took all of my self-restraint not to call him an idiot. "It's obvious… _I'm_ Evo Prime's leader. I used to be a member of Emperor. I highly doubt that anything I do that involves the road-racing scene is going to escape Kyouichi's knowledge. And I know that Kyouichi has absolutely no connections to the Night Kids, so _he_ couldn't have told them."

"But what if someone else did?" he persisted.

"Well, wouldn't they have attacked _me_ and sent _me_ to the hospital instead of Miyoko? It doesn't make sense why they'd attack _her_, especially since she hasn't done anything to them."

Jin was thoughtful. "It must've been just a random attack… that Night Kids guy must've been going for a joyride on Happo, saw Miyoko on the road, pegged her driving style for a racer's and decided to jerk around with her. It could also be entirely possible that having her crash and having her hospitalized wasn't on his agenda."

"Whether it was or it wasn't isn't the point!" Alex raged. "No one does this to one of us and gets away with it!" he growled harshly. At least he felt the same way I did about the situation. He fixed me with a direct glare, his blue eyes blazing. "We're going to Myougi, aren't we? To make them pay?"

"_We're_ not going anywhere. _I'm_ going to Myougi. Alone. You two need to stay here with her," I replied as quietly and firmly as possible. The last thing I wanted was to place _them _in danger as well. I couldn't care less what happened to me, but I wouldn't stand it if something happened to Alex and my brother at the same time while I did something stupid. And let's face it; going alone to Myougi to face the whole Night Kids team to find out who harmed Miyoko _was_ a stupid idea. But it was something that absolutely needed to be done.

I wasn't about to allow something like this to happen to anyone else.

Jin looked absolutely shocked. "Aniki! Are you _sure?_ Those Night Kids'll all jump you if you go alone! At least if we're there, you'd stand a chance of surviving and making it out of there in one piece."

I shook my head. "I may not know the team leader of the Night Kids well, nor will he like having come horning in on his territory accusing one of his teammates of hurting one of mine, but I know he wouldn't send them to attack me for nothing. Especially not if he finds out exactly _who_ his teammate injured and hospitalized."

Alex had to let out a snort of laughter at that. "He's got a point, Jin. If the name of Ieyasu is enough to evoke shock and wonder in Kyouichi Sudou, then it'll be enough to evoke fear in whoever it was who was stupid enough to do this to Miyoko." Almost as if fearful that she'd heard us, Alex glanced over at Miyoko's bed. She still slept on peacefully, unaware of our discussion. "Hey, does Miyoko know what you're about to do?"

"No. As a matter of fact, she wanted to take on the Night Kid guy who'd done this to her. But as team leader of Evo Prime, I'll go deal with them, as it is my duty. Besides, she's in no condition to go anywhere right now. It's best we let her recover first before telling her anything. Can I trust you guys with this?" I asked, hoping that they won't spill the story to her. The last thing I need is to return and have her yelling in my face for exacting revenge in her stead.

Both of them nodded. "We won't tell her. And good luck! Show 'em what Evo Prime is made of!"

---

The whole time that I drove to Myougi, I kept thinking about the Myougi mountain pass. It'd been well over a year since I'd last been there. I doubt anything drastic had changed about the track, but the last time I'd driven on it, I raced on the uphill. No doubt if I had to challenge the Civic, it'd be on the downhill, because in my Evo, I'd completely dominate it on the uphill. Also, I thought back to the other drivers in the Night Kids… I didn't remember any of the other cars… all I remembered was the black GT-R. But I came this far… it was too late to turn back now.

When I'd approached the top of the mountain pass, I could see a large amount of cars gathered, as well as a lot of people. Amid the blackness of the night, I could see the black GT-R like a shadow in the dark. I was aware of their stares of shock and anger as I drove up. But I didn't care. Right now, what mattered most was finding whoever it was who owned the red Civic.

As I parked my car in the middle of the road and got out, I saw everyone glaring at me with open disdain. I immediately recognized Takeshi Nakazato, the leader of the Night Kids, who eyed me with open distaste before he slowly approached me. Next to him was some younger lout, with longish shoulder length hair and a petulant look on his face. He stayed when Nakazato approached, though.

"Seiji Iwaki… what are you doing here? Isn't it enough that you've destroyed us with Emperor nearly two years ago?" Nakazato was saying.

"It would've remained at that… if it weren't for one of your louts going all the way to Happogahara and deliberately hospitalizing one of my teammates," I answered in a low voice.

The man with the shoulder length hair scoffed. "But I thought Irohazaka was the stronghold of Emperor, not Happogahara. Unless you guys changed home turfs."

Nakazato didn't even bother to turn and look at his teammate as he addressed him, "Shut up, Shingo." Still facing me, he said, "What makes you say it was one of us who hospitalized your teammate?"

"From what my teammate told me, she'd been run off the road by someone driving a red Honda Civic SiRII with a Night Kids sticker. There's only one Night Kids team that I know of, and it's this one."

Takeshi narrowed his eyes, then this time, he turned to face the guy with the longish hair, the guy he'd called Shingo. "Is what he says true, Shingo? Did you go to Tochigi today and run someone off the road?"

Shingo shrugged selflessly. "So what if I did? He cut me off while I was driving around! Besides, the red Evo I'd heckled didn't have an Emperor sticker, so I don't see why _he_ cares so much." He then sneered at me. "Unless it's a new member."

I could feel my grip on my temper giving way. "It's not a new member, it's a new team. The person you'd so fondly run into a guardrail and sent to the hospital was Miyoko Ieyasu and she's a member of my new racing team, Evo Prime! And you have no remorse for what you've done?!"

Shingo barely raised an eyebrow, but Nakazato looked sufficiently shocked. At the name, of course. "Did you say Miyoko Ieyasu? The daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu?" He then turned to face Shingo again and addressed him, this time with cold fury, "You _idiot!_ Do you realize what could happen to you if Ieyasu finds out you were deliberately responsible for sending his daughter to the hospital?"

The one called Shingo barely bat an eye. "It's not like either of them can prove it was me, anyway. Why should I be worried? Besides," here he looked at me with a look of open insolence, "if she's one of _your_ teammates, then I'd say she should've seen it coming. She deserved it."

I totally lost it. "Why, you arrogant, cold-hearted son of a bitch!" I raged as I lunged at him. I could've sworn that had I gotten my hands on him, I'd have beaten him into a bloody pulp, but Nakazato held me back. And with good reason; I was fully ready to destroy the little maggot.

"Iwaki, calm down!" he shouted before I'd managed to contain _some_ of my anger. Not all, but just enough to prevent me from trying to kill that smug bastard. He looked at me, then at Shingo, before he spoke, "Look, beating him up isn't going to change anything, and if anything, you'll probably be jailed for assault. Even though he was the direct cause of Ieyasu-chan's hospitalization. How about this; you and Shingo have one straight race. A downhill battle. If you win, I'll let you have one punch to his sorry face."

"Hey! Takeshi, what the hell?!" Shingo cried out indignantly. "No way!"

Takeshi shot him a deadly glance before he continued. "If you lose, you leave and Shingo goes off scot-free. Also, since his car is severely underpowered, he'll take the lead in the beginning. You'll have to pass him before the finish line, or you lose."

It was grossly unfair, considering Shingo's home course advantage, but in a way, it balanced out since my car was grossly overpowered compared to his. However, Nakazato wasn't done, "Also… Shingo strictly adheres to one style of racing… it's called the Gum Tape Death Match. Ever heard of it?"

I didn't like the sound of it. "What is it?" But I was determined to win, no matter what. Even if I had to comply with their retarded stipulations.

"Your right hand is taped to your steering wheel. Your left hand is free for gear shifting. If the gum tape comes off before the end of the race, you lose. Will that suffice?"

One hand taped to the steering wheel… What the hell? _No one_ could possibly win against him under those stipulations! He'd obviously mastered it. The moment I'd thought of it, I immediately had to dismiss it from my mind. Of course someone had won against him. None other than Fujiwara Takumi. And if he could do it, then there's a high chance that _I_ could too. And I _would _do it. For Miyoko, if nothing else.

"Fine," I answered curtly. "But I also have one condition. If I win," here, I pointed a finger at Shingo, "you'd better not show your face around Happogahara again, or else I _will_ beat the stuffing out of you. And that, I promise!"

Shingo scoffed. "_If_ you win."

And I _am_ going to win. You'll see about that. I nodded once to Takeshi, who clapped his hands once and the road cleared almost instantaneously as the other racers scrambled to move their vehicles aside. I brought my car up to the beginning of the starting line. Shingo brought his red Honda Civic SiRII next to my Evo and then tossed me a roll of duct tape. "Remember, if it falls off during the race, you lose."

I knew I would make sure that it wouldn't. Above all, I was determined to win at their game. No one would ever make a fool out of me ever again. Least of all these little maggots whom I've smashed before when I was a part of Emperor. If I was able to do it back then, I should be able to do it again now. I wrapped the tape around my hand and the steering wheel and tried to flex my hand. It felt awkward. Takeshi passed by to see if the tape was set properly. He checked it carefully, then nodded and gave the thumbs-up sign to Shingo and the others. It made me suddenly wonder… what exact disadvantages would I have with this tape on my hand?

Nakazato was speaking. "You'll both start slowly and then at a certain point, Shingo will flash his lights, meaning the race will start. Then he'll speed up and you'll have to take off after him. Remember, if the tape comes off, for either of you, you lose. If you win, you get to throw one punch to Shingo's face and he's forbidden to go anywhere near your team. If you lose, he goes off free. Ready?"

I attempted to flex my hand again and nodded. No way was I going to let this little twit win! Not after what he'd done to Miyoko! I wouldn't give him that satisfaction of going off scot-free.

I watched carefully as Shingo started off at a slow pace. I fell into line behind him and slowly followed him towards the downhill path. Then, without warning, he flashed his lights twice before he took off. Almost immediately, I shifted up and took off after him. All was well until I'd encountered the first corner. As I turned to execute a drift, I'd suddenly noticed why the gum tape was an impediment… _it restricted the turning of the wheel!_ I could only turn it so far before my arm would start to hurt from twisting it in the wrong direction.

The sonofabitch! He knew all along that having your right hand taped to the wheel would severely restrict the turning capabilities of the driver! Without a doubt, he knew how to manipulate his vehicle effectively with the handicap. And also without a doubt, he knew that others didn't.

This was going to be harder than I'd thought…

I took a deep breath and stared at the road ahead of me. Shingo was still visible in front of me, but he was slowly getting away. I knew that I couldn't allow that twit to get away. It would do me ill right now to become angry, so I took another deep breath. Kyouichi's repeated words of wisdom returned to me at that moment, "_Stay calm, Seiji. A common mistake not to think clearly enough. Your skills are exceptional, but they mean nothing if you can't stay calm on the road._"

One thing I knew was that if I'd let him get away, I'd lose for sure. Another thing I knew was that if I'd lost my temper, I'd be prone to resorting to _his_ dirty tricks. Above all, I knew I couldn't allow that, even though the temptation was sorely inviting.

What else was it that Miyoko had told me about what he'd done? "_He started to drive behind me tapping my bumper, so I tried to move out of the way, but he followed me and kept tapping me… So finally, I slowed down enough to let him pass. Then he swerved in front of me, and suddenly braked, forcing me to brake as well. I kept trying to pass him, but it kept swerving in front of me, braking suddenly…_" I ground my teeth and stepped a bit harder on the accelerator. I wasn't about to let him win, especially not with his dirty tricks.

I started to catch up to his rear bumper. I was about no more than five meters away from him when I suddenly saw his brake lights turn on. _So, you think you can brake in my face, like you did with Miyoko? Well, good luck!_ Within that split second that I saw his brake lights go on, my reflexes kicked into motion and I swerved out of the way, accelerating as fast as my Evo could go. I pulled up alongside him and claimed the inside track. When the next turn approached, I made sure to shift the weight just enough to allow my car to slide into the corner, allowing me to turn just enough without having to turn the wheel all the way to the other side.

I kept my eye on my blind side while watching the road, making sure that Shingo didn't spring out of nowhere, all while trying to conserve my tires as I attacked the twists and turns of Myougi. When I came to think about it, Myougi wasn't all that different from Happogahara. It just had less sharp hairpins and a lot more small constant turns here and there. I knew that he was right behind me, but I also knew that as long as I kept a reasonable distance, he wouldn't be able to tap my bumper. As the turns kept coming out of nowhere, I suddenly saw the flash of an incoming car. I moved out of the way and turned into the next corner as best as I could. As far as I knew, Shingo should have been right behind me, but the moment I heard tires squealing behind me and a crash, I knew that something had gone totally wrong.

I quickly turned the car around and drove back up Myougi and saw a Nissan Cube off to the side, along with Shingo's car dented up against the guardrail. _Oh shit… When I'd intended to make him pay for what he'd done to Miyoko, this wasn't what I'd had in mind!_

I quickly tore off the duct tape as best as I could and quickly got out of my Evo to see if he was alright. The other driver wasn't severely injured either, but he was scared to hell. I didn't blame him; so was I. _Oh dear God, please don't tell me he's dead._ I made it to the door on the driver's side and yanked it open. Fortunately, Shingo's airbag had deployed before he could crash through the windshield, and his seatbelt was still fastened. However, his hand was still taped to the steering wheel and I could only imagine the pain he was experiencing right now. Very carefully, I removed the duct tape from his hand and released his seat belt. "Hey Shingo… are you okay?"

"Nnn… ow… damnit, it hurts…" he mumbled as he tried to move, but when his arm dropped down to rest at his side, he let out a loud yelp of pain. I recoiled and winced at the sound, and I imagined the other driver did too.

"Can you move your arm?" I asked. When he shook his head, I tried to carefully help him out of the car without moving his arm too much. "It might be broken. Let me take you to the hospital."

He let me help him out of his car, but beyond that, he wouldn't let me go near him. He just stared at me with a half-humiliated half-angry look. "Why the hell are you helping me?"

I shrugged helplessly. "Look, I can't help but feel partially responsible, okay? The least I could do is take you to the nearest hospital so that you can get your arm fixed up. Otherwise it may set wrong and you'll incur more damage in the long run. Would you want to jeopardize your racing career simply because you don't want my help?"

Shingo remained hesitant, but he eventually acquiesced. I nodded, then turned to the other driver, addressing him. "Hey you… are you heading up Mt. Myougi?"

"Me? Uh… yeah… I'm supposed to meet someone there. Why?"

"Think you could do me a favor? I have a… friend… at the top of the pass… He drives a black R32 and his name is Takeshi Nakazato. Could you tell him for me that Shingo here had a small accident and that I'll be taking him to the hospital?"

"Uh… sure thing." He then nodded, got back into his Cube and drove off. I then turned to Shingo and indicated for him to follow me. He refused any assistance in getting into the passenger side of my Evo, but he seemed to handle things well with one arm.

The drive down was mostly in silence, until Shingo broke it. "Okay, tell me something, Iwaki. First off, you came to Myougi with the intent of kicking my ass because of what I did to your teammate, and now because I've been in a freak accident, you want to help me out? I would've thought that you'd _wanted_ to see me get hurt this badly."

I let out a sigh. "It was not my intention for you to get hurt this badly. If I think about it, in comparison to what happened to you, Miyoko got off easy. Besides, I just want to make one thing clear; contrary to what most people think, I'm an ass, not an ass_hole_. I run my mouth off a lot, but I'd never willingly try to get someone killed. That's just dishonorable." I'd meant for that comment to sting, and it did. Shingo remained quiet for a long while.

When he spoke again, it was more deferential, "You mentioned something about a new team… Evo Prime, I believe… If I'm not prying, what happened with Emperor?"

I knew he'd mock me for this, but I didn't care. The past was past and all I cared about was the future. "I got kicked out for losing one too many times."

The mocking laughter I was expecting came. Shingo threw his head back and whooped, but stopped when the pain shot through him again. He then tried to calm down and saw that I wasn't laughing at all. But I wasn't mad either, and that was what bothered him. "Hey… you're not angry… Why not?"

"Because I don't care about Emperor anymore. Hell, when I think about it, it sucked being one of Kyouichi Sudou's lackeys. I very much prefer being my own boss. As it is, I'm the team leader of my new team, Evo Prime. The others look up to me, and I get the respect that I never got while in Emperor."

Shingo appeared thoughtful. "Hm… Sometimes I wish I had my own team… I mean, God knows that Takeshi sucks as a team leader for the Night Kids. I could be a much better leader than he is!"

"Well… you know, being a team leader is a big responsibility… You become responsible for overseeing your team's progression in skills. If you simply leave them to their own devices and don't watch them improve, you may very well become the sole defender of your team's honor and that's a hard thing to do. You'd have to have godlike skills to pull off something of that caliber."

"Or be like Fujiwara," Shingo suggested.

I scoffed at that. "I don't think either of us will ever become like Fujiwara, no matter how hard we try. There's a reason why Takahashi didn't seek us out for Project D. But hey, we can keep trying, at least."

"Yeah…" We both sighed in unison, then we fell silent.

Finally, Shingo spoke again; "You know something, Iwaki? You're not so bad once you get to know you better. I guess we all misjudged you."

I raised my eyebrows. "Whoa, don't get all softie on me, now. I'm still the same idiot I used to be. Just that now, I've got more important things on hand than picking arguments with other people. Actually," I added, as an afterthought, "Kyouichi was right about me; I _do_ need to stop and think before I speak. It's worked wonders these days, especially with my teammates. They're not exactly all deferential to my authority, you know. Well, except my brother, but then, considering I'm six years his senior, he's always listened to what I had to say. Even if it was the dumbest thing in the world."

He gave me a sidelong glance. "Your brother is in your team too? You guys must be like a family instead of a team or something… or a lower-level Project D."

I shrugged and grinned weakly. "I'll take that as a compliment, I guess. No, they actually appointed me as leader because I had the most racing experience out of all of them. The rest of them are pretty new to the whole road-racing notion. Come to think of it, we're more like a mini-Emperor. After all, we all drive Evos, although they drive the new Evo VII and I have my old Evo IV."

Shingo absorbed that last bit of information in silence. His next comment seemed hesitant, almost fearful. "You don't think Ieyasu will sue me for what I did, will she?"

That's a good question. "Well, I can't really talk for her. That's up to her. Actually, tell me something, Shingo… When you ran into Miyoko on Happo, why'd you start to toy around with her on the road and have her get into an accident? I heard that when you'd jerked around with Fujiwara's loud-mouthed fish-lipped friend and got _him_ hospitalized, he came after you with full venom and taught you one hell of a lesson. What made you revert?"

He was taken aback by that question, but he thought it through before he replied with an earnest, "You know… if I think about it really far, I can't really come up with a plausible reason… except… Well… _You_ get really furious when someone cuts you off on the road, right? Well, that's what she did to me on Happo! And you know better than I do that Happogahara is one hell of a narrow ride! I can't explain what got over me then, but I really felt that I had to get her back. Of course, I had no idea who she was, or whether she was connected to anyone I'd met previously."

I made a face. "As much as I acknowledge your attempt at direct honesty, I'm finding it somewhat hard to give you sympathy for that. Didn't you say before - and I quote: "_if she's one of _your_ teammates, then I'd say she should've seen it coming. She deserved it._" No offense, but a comment like that pretty much destroys your credibility."

I could tell my insistent prodding was taking his toll on his tactfulness, but he _was _in my car and I _was _the one behind the wheel, so unless he wanted to get to a hospital safely, he'd have to try. "Well, as much as I acknowledge your attempt at being nice, I'd really thought that no matter what the outcome of our race had been, you'd have gone and slugged me across my sorry face. I also had no idea that you'd be this nice to me, especially after what I did and said."

"Fair enough. Well, put it this way… I'll try my best to convince Miyoko that she's been avenged. Just between you and me though, she wanted to take a shot at you herself, and trust me… when _she's_ pissed off; she's a nuclear warhead with a detonation malfunction. I don't think she'd have been anywhere near as honorable as I was in the race. For that matter, I don't think _any_ of my teammates would've been nearly as honorable as I was."

"In that case, I guess I should be thankful you're the one who came." He nodded once and fell into silence again. The next he spoke, it was serious, "Are you planning on going after Emperor once your teammates gain enough skill?"

"No, of course not. I just wanted to sever all my ties from Emperor completely, but still be able to enjoy road racing. In all honesty, I had retired after leaving Emperor, but my brother and his friends convinced me to come back as their leader. And…" here, I hesitated, lest I wanted to sound more pansy-ish than usual, but I tossed my concerns aside and said, "Well, being with Evo Prime makes me happy. They're all a crazy but entertaining sort to be around, despite their being six to eight years younger than me."

"No kidding… You guys really are like a family. That's pretty cool," Shingo answered honestly.

And when I thought about it… he was right.

And I liked the feeling…

---

Well… yeah… That's why I'm not too proud of this chapter myself. It's a bit too cliché, the way I made Shingo lose.

I'd meant it when I said that this chapter was going to be the one which begins the cementing of Seiji as Evo Prime's leader. Considering his attitudes while he was a part of Emperor, you can see that now, since he's his own leader, he takes on a new sense of responsibility and doesn't act as asinine to other racers, particularly since he doesn't want to sully the reputation of his team with others. I always perceived Emperor as the badass team with no cares whatsoever, that as long as they won legitimately, they could look down upon whoever the hell they wanted. I'm trying to play the fact that Seiji seems somewhat ashamed of having been a part of that; because he's a leader of a new team, he doesn't want his past with Emperor to interfere with his achievements with Evo Prime.

Hence why when Shingo's accident occurs, he turns around and helps him out, because an injured person is still an injured person, no matter what he did. It also helps Shingo to (hopefully) finally realize the error of his actions; he'd left Miyoko alone when she'd gotten into the accident, but even though Seiji came to Myougi with the intent of beating Shingo to a bloody pulp, he still helps him when he gets injured.

This ties in with _why_ I'd let Takeshi allow the race between Shingo and Seiji to happen. Despite Takeshi's disgust and outrage at Shingo having pulled yet another stunt like causing Miyoko's accident, he's still bitter about the loss he'd experienced at Seiji's hands when he was still an Emperor. I mean, think about it: Seiji went all the way to Myougi - alone - to take on Shingo, and he's still got that cut in half upside-down Night Kids sticker on his back wing. Of course when Takeshi sees it, he's seething inside. He doesn't need a reminder like that to be shoved in his face, no matter what Seiji's intentions are.

Yes, the story's taking on a sappy note. If you think this is sappy, the next chapter's got enough syrupy goodness to cover your family's pancakes for a week. But I believe it's essential to develop further the story for the upcoming events.

-BoomChish-


	9. CH9: If You Wanna Stay

And here's Chapter Nine, in all its syrupy goodness! Who wants pancakes?!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Nine

If You Wanna Stay

"You did _what?_" Miyoko shrilled as I visited her the next day to take her home. Alex and Jin stared at me with complete confusion on their faces, as if what I'd just said was the most ridiculous thing they'd ever heard.

"I did what I felt was right, Miyoko. After he'd gotten into the accident, I took him to the hospital. Granted, he didn't offer you that same kindness when you had the accident, but at least this way, he's really learned his lesson. He won't do this to anyone ever again. Guaranteed." And it was the truth too.

"I don't _care_ if he doesn't do it again! I can't believe you let him off easily like that!" she argued.

"Aniki, as much as I like deferring to your wisdom of experience, I'm inclined to agree with Miyo. You said so yourself: he did this same thing to Fujiwara's friend and then got into an accident during the race. Then he did the same thing to Miyo. If he had to do it a second time after such a result, it means he didn't learn his lesson, and that he never will."

I stood up. "Hey, now cut that out. Shingo is only human, as are the rest of us. He deserves a second chance. If I were to follow your argument to the fullest point, it would mean that I should always perceive Miyoko as a cold, selfish, arrogant, spoiled brat, despite her attempts to change her behaviour."

"Hey! I'm not like that!" Miyoko whined plaintively, then added a small, "all the time…"

"Of course not. But see, that's my point. Sometimes, it takes something very severe to make someone learn their lesson. Someone could be a pyromaniac and set fire to his house, and not learn his lesson, until he sets another building on fire and someone he cares about dies in the flames. You see where I'm getting at?"

Alex inclined his head. "Well, it's an odd analogy, but I get it." He then raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You seem to be high on all that honor and respect business, don't you, Seiji? Even after people do some awful shit to your teammates, you still treat everyone equally if you feel like they deserve it."

"Of course I do. To be honest though, if he'd survived that race intact, I would've beaten the crap out of him. But as it is, I'm glad it didn't come to that. I think I would've felt worse coming back after doing something like that. By the way, Shingo intends to pass by to apologize personally."

"What?! Seiji, why?" Miyoko demanded.

"Why not? Personally, I think it's nice that he's willing to make the trip here to apologize. It means he knows he did something wrong and that he's willing to put his dignity aside to make things right." I gave her a direct stare, then nodded once. "Are you saying that you're not someone who'd do that?"

"I… oh, okay, I get it…" she murmured dejectedly. Alex and Jin exchanged a glance, which I intercepted almost immediately and quelled. "Look, I know none of you are happy about this, but as it turns out, I'm not the one who coerced him to do this. He decided to apologize on his own. Give him a chance to apologize, if nothing else."

Eventually, Shingo arrived, followed by Nakazato. His arm was in a sling, as I'd expected, and he suitably looked subdued. Especially since Nakazato had one hell of an annoyed look on his face. I could only imagine his displeasure at having to go this far out of the way just so that Shingo could make amends for his actions. There was also the fact that _my_ teammates weren't looking too friendly at the moment. Especially Miyoko, who was the sole reason why he'd even bother to make this trip.

She was sitting upright in her bed and she merely glared at him with a look cold enough to freeze over the depths of Hell as he took one tentative step forward, and stayed there when her gaze didn't soften. "Um… Ieyasu-chan… I, um… I'm sorry for what I did to you yesterday. I… don't know what got over me… and I doubt you'll forgive me, but I'm really sorry for what I did. Really."

She said nothing, she merely continued to glare at him. In turn, I shot her a warning look, which meant to say, _don't act like an ass now. At least acknowledge the fact that he came all the way out here to apologize to you! He didn't have to, you know!_

She sniffed in disdain. "Well, I suppose you _do_ deserve _some_ credit for coming all the way out here to apologize. I must say, I really wasn't expecting it… until Seiji told me you'd be passing by."

I had no idea whether she was deliberately trying to blame her attitude on my earlier words of wisdom or whether she was really angry for what he'd done to her, but either way, I wasn't proud of the way she was taking the situation. In the meantime, she continued; "And I suppose you're only here because of what happened to you during your race with Seiji, hmm?"

"That's enough, Miyoko!" I snapped harshly. "Show some respect! I'd expected more from you."

She gave me a venomous stare. "You're not my father."

"I don't have to be to tell you that your attitude is really inappropriate not to mention rude right now! Did none of what I'd said earlier penetrate your thick head?"

"I beg your pardon!" she screeched. "I am _not_ thick-headed! If anything -"

"All right, cut it out before we all get kicked out of here!" Jin cut in, raising his voice and effectively silencing everyone in the room. He then cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "Sorry. Anyway… Miyo, even though I'm on your side, I agree with aniki… at least he's here to try to fix what he did wrong. Can't you at least be respectful for that?"

Miyoko said nothing, but she looked away and stared at her bedside table. I was startled to see that she was fighting back tears. It cut me to the core, seeing that defeated look on her face, but I knew that I couldn't let her get away with that behaviour. Not if I wanted to call myself a good team leader. Ironically, I wondered why I spent more time disciplining Miyoko's attitude rather than her racing skills.

Shingo looked around hesitantly. "Well… I, uh… think we've overstayed our welcome. Um… we'll be… going now…"

I let out a sigh. "Hey, thanks for coming, you guys. I know how hard this must've been for you. Incidentally… what's the status on your car, Shingo?"

He shook his head. "Totaled. It's gonna cost me a fortune to get it repaired. I'm thinking I might scrap it and get a new car altogether."

Nakazato elbowed him in the ribs playfully. "Maybe it's about time you invested in something sturdier," he joked. Shingo gave him a sour look. "Shut up, Takeshi." Then he looked over at Miyoko, who was still looking away. "Um… how's _your_ car, Ieyasu-chan?"

She didn't answer, so I did it for her, "It's in the shop. It should be fixed soon." I could tell he looked extremely uncomfortable, so I nodded at him and gave an encouraging smile. "Hope that arm of yours heals soon."

"Thanks, Iwaki… I, uh… I hope you get better soon, Ieyasu-chan…" he finished before he and Nakazato left the room. All of us stood there (or sat there, in Miyoko's case) in silence. I looked over at Miyoko and could still see her fighting back tears. I decided to comfort her to the best of my ability. "Hey, it's not so bad…" I spoke soothingly, placing one hand on her shoulder.

She jerked away from me as if she'd been stung. "Don't touch me," she hissed, her mouth trembling. "I hate you." And with that, she started to cry. I just stood there, unsure of what to say. The other two stared at me, as if expecting me to do something.

"Miyoko…" I murmured, but she kept on crying. I tried again to comfort her, but she merely screamed in my face again, "I hate you Seiji!" Almost immediately after that, one of the nurses hurried into the room, a worried look on her face. "Is everything okay? What's wrong, Ieyasu-chan? Is Seiji bothering you? I can ask him to leave, if you'd like."

That did it. I let out an exclamation of disgust and frustration and stormed out of her hospital room. To hell with her and to hell with Evo Prime. I didn't agree to become their team leader to deal with childish tantrums like this. It just wasn't worth the headache. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard Jin calling out my name. I didn't bother turning around, nor did I break my stride. I only stopped when Jin caught up to me and grabbed my arm, restricting my movement.

"Aniki, where are you going?"

I turned to face him and there was no mistaking the disgust I had on my face. "Home. I'm packing my things and I'm leaving."

He turned pale. "But you can't! We need you! What about Evo Prime?"

"What _about_ it?" I demanded. "Miyoko's got enough skill to lead the team. Let _her_ be your leader. She obviously _wants_ to be leader anyway. After all, she doesn't seem to listen to me, even when I'm trying to get a logical point across. With what I've taught you so far, you can pretty much figure out the rest yourselves. You don't need me anymore." I turned to leave again.

"Aniki…" He tried again, "I know Miyoko's being difficult, but you know… like I said before… some times, you have to let her win… to make her happy."

I turned around to face him again and this time, my disgust was directed at him. "_Make her happy?_ You just don't get it, do you, Jin? I don't give a rat's ass if she's Hiroji Ieyasu's daughter. She could be queen of the goddamn world and I wouldn't care either way. I refuse to bend _my_ principles just because they don't suit _her_ agenda. Both you and Alex can be her personalized doormats if you want to, but I refuse to be a part of that group. I have more dignity in myself than to become some spoiled brat's lapdog." I yanked my arm out of his grasp. "Now if you'll excuse me… I have some packing to do."

I'd meant my words to hurt. But it was the truth and nothing but. After all, they seemed to like deferring to the princess's every whim, so they could continue doing so, with my blessing. There was no way that _I'd_ do that, though. And as a matter of fact, I didn't care if I'd have to live in a hotel for a few weeks. I was sure that in the long run, it'd be worth it. A small part of me felt a twinge of disappointment, because I knew I was going to miss all of them. My brother… Alex… Sparky… even Miyoko to an extent.

But if I wanted to keep my sanity, I had to leave. If I stayed any longer, I knew my brain would explode. Especially with the way Miyoko kept slipping back into her old bratty phase, despite my best efforts to teach her otherwise. Besides, I'd agreed to be the team leader of their racing team, not be her surrogate father.

The house seemed darker than usual when I got there. Or maybe it was just me, since I knew I probably wouldn't see it again. I parked my car, got out and made my way to the front door. I could hear Sparky whining from the inside as I took out my keys. When I opened the door, he barked and jumped up at me, trying to lick my face again. I let out a sigh. I knew I was going to miss the scamp, even if he did like waking me (and everyone else) up at all hours with his howls. I knelt down and ruffled his dark head affectionately. "I'm gonna miss you, boy." He seemed to sense the sadness in my voice and he started to whine again and kept butting his nose against my palm. I stood up and let out a long sigh before I made my way upstairs to begin packing my things.

I had just finished snapping the lid shut on the last suitcase when I heard the familiar engine roar of Alex and Jin's cars. So they got back before I could leave. And since Miyoko was supposed to be discharged from the hospital today, it meant that she had to be with them. Oh well… At least I could give them one last honest farewell before we parted ways.

I hoisted up two suitcases and started to carry them downstairs. As I reached the bottom landing, Miyoko stepped into the main hallway, flanked on either side by Jin and Alex. Her eyes were puffy from all that crying, and both guys had solemn looks on their faces. I stared back at them in silence before I let out a small sigh and shrugged. "Well… good bye… And good luck with Evo Prime."

"I don't want you to go…" Miyoko spoke in a low voice. It was shaky, as if she could burst into tears at any given moment. And judging by the look on her face, she looked like she was ready to do so.

"It doesn't seem like I have any other choice, though… I can't stay here. I -"  
"I'm sorry!" she cried as she threw herself at me. I let go of both suitcases to catch her before she could crash into me. "I'm sorry! I'll change! I swear I will! Just don't leave!" she sobbed as she clutched at my shirtfront. I stared at both Alex and Jin, who both avoided my gaze. "Please don't leave, Seiji. I'm sorry…" she whimpered.

As much as I didn't want to have to deal any further with her histrionics, I knew that if I didn't give her another chance, I'd merely be contradicting what I'd said earlier that day when I was talking about Shingo. And I couldn't back down on my word. Not if I wanted to keep any credibility.

Still…

I let out another sigh and held her at arm's length. She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. My expression hadn't changed, though, as I said, "You know… your behaviour today was really reprehensible and I was utterly shocked to see you act the way you did. After all, the world is made up of many different people, and you can't expect everyone to bow down to your wishes, despite you being who you are." I waited a moment for my words to sink in before I went on; "However, I will give you a second chance. I'll stay... But!" here, I held up a finger, "If you step out of line again, I swear I will leave. And no amount of reasoning, threats or crying will make me change my mind. I can only take so much before I lose it, Miyoko. I'm only human after all. We all are."

She nodded and sniffled again before letting out another feeble "I'm sorry…"

"I know. It's okay."

"I really am a horrible person, aren't I? I can never seem to act reasonable around anyone," she spoke, almost to herself as she sniffled.

Alex and Jin still said nothing. I shrugged and smiled a little. "Well, not exactly, but you do tend to be difficult to deal with at some rather inappropriate times, I must admit. But everyone can be like that, so you can't blame all your shortcomings on that." I then let her go and let out another sigh. "I… guess I better go unpack… again…"

"I'll help!" Miyoko offered, her eyes hopeful. I shook my head and stared pointedly at her sling and the neck brace.

"Not this time. You shouldn't strain yourself too much while you're trying to recover."

"I'll help," Jin spoke solemnly. He nodded once to both Alex and Miyoko, then followed me upstairs back to my room. I dropped both suitcases on my bed and then turned to face my brother. "Okay, so tell me… what convinced her to apologize for her behaviour?"

"When I relayed the news that you'd be going home to pack, Miyoko merely said "Good riddance!" but Alex and I really let her have it. She _was_ acting like a spoiled brat, aniki; and we didn't want you to leave just because she couldn't suck it up and accept the fact that she can't have everything her way. Also…" here, he looked uneasy, "well, the personalized doormat comment really hit home. It made me realize why you and Miyo fight so much, while Alex and I seem to get along with her just fine… It's because you always stand up to her and never let her dominate over you. Considering she's Hiroji Ieyasu's daughter, it's fair to assume that she basically grew up having everything she's ever wanted, so very few people have ever said _no_ to her. You weren't trying to be mean to her; you were just trying to teach her that there's more to life than having what you want."

"At least one of you figured out why I was so adamant with her," I spoke wryly.

"Thing is… if Alex and I start adopting the attitude you use on her, I think she'll feel hopelessly outnumbered and will order all three of us out of her house. And, well… all three of us taking on a domineering behaviour wouldn't be fair to her…"

"I know. I never said that you two needed to be as scathing as I am when she counters me. Just remember that when she really steps far out of line, it's okay to set her straight." When Jin laughed, I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey… do you want to know what Shingo said about our team when I was driving him to the hospital?"

Jin looked at me in surprise. "What did he say? Was it something insulting?"

I smiled and shook my head. "No. The way I described us, he said we were more like a family than a team of racers. And you know what? He said - well, he didn't _say_ it, but he insinuated it - that he was jealous of how we take care of each other, despite our differences. We may not be the most skilled team around, but we've got something else that others don't have…"

He was looking at me funnily. "Man aniki, sometimes I _swear_ you're going soft on us."

I let out a mock growl and grabbed him in a headlock whereupon I began to give him a noogie. "And what exactly did you mean by _that_, little brother?" I chastised.

Jin struggled to get loose. "Aah, aniki, I was only _kidding!"_

I let him go and stared at him with a _don't mock me again or else it's curtains for you_ look. I then laughed and said, "It's not that I've gone soft. It's just… Well, I've been living on my own for over five years and you know that I've had little to no contact with you or the rest of the family. So, well… in a way, it's nice to live in a family atmosphere again, you know? All the daily craziness and arguments and decisions… I missed all that." My voice took on a mocking tone. "Is it a _crime_ to want a family setting?"

"We-ell…" Jin drawled, deliberately stretching out the last syllable, "if you _really_ wanted a family, why don't you just get married? God knows you're at an age to settle down, aniki. What's holding you back?" he teased.

I knew he was joking, but hey… why not play along? "Are you kidding me?" I demanded, pointing at my face with both my index fingers. "You honestly think that with something like _this, _I can land myself a wife? If anything, _you'd_ have an easier time landing yourself some willing lady, but I've got my work cut out for me!"

Jin threw his head back and laughed aloud. "Hey, if _I_ can land myself a wife, it shouldn't be all that much harder for you! After all, you _are_ my brother, and we don't look all _that _different from each other." Almost as if on cue, we both stared into the small mirror that hung on the wall. Our reflections stared back at us; Jin was looking fresh-faced and oozed out all that sex appeal, while I looked like a worn-out version of him. "Well…" he tried to reason, "_somewhat_ different…"

"I love the confidence behind your words, brother," I mocked before I ruffled his head affectionately. "Aah, who am I kidding? I know you just have my best interests in mind. Thanks for your concern… but I enjoy my independence right now. I see no need to shackle myself any time soon."

Jin gave me a crooked smile. "Darn. And here I was, hoping that you'd grant my wish to become an uncle," he joked. At that, I snorted and punched him in the arm. "Yeah right. Ask Shizuka to do that for you. I'm worried that _my_ kids'll turn out as horrendous as I did. After all, you seem to have gotten all the looks in the family, you lucky bastard."

"Not exactly. You looked a lot like me when you were my age. If anything, I'm more slated to look like _you_ when I get older, so in effect, I'm the one who has a lot to be concerned about when it comes to my looks, aniki."

I made a sour face. "Don't remind me. Just my luck, back then, I had to be stupidly obsessed with cars and racing that I'd completely ignored any of the girls who bothered to come after me."

It was Jin's turn to grab me in a headlock and give me a noogie. "Aah, stop underrating yourself, aniki. Why, if I was a hot girl, I'd grab you up in an instant!" he chortled.

I merely went still at that comment, then said, very slowly, "In that case…" here, I freed myself from his grasp and stood a fair distance away from him, "I think I'll stand over here now… while you stay over there…"

"Jeez aniki, I was only kidding!" And with that, he chased me and tackled me to the ground, whereupon we got into one of our stupidly immature playfights, something we hadn't done in ages, but still indulged in from time to time when we were together.

Despite all that, I had to admit, I liked the notion of Evo Prime being more than just a team, but more a family. It gave it a special feeling, one that was noticeably absent when I was a part of Emperor.

It also gave me the incentive to stay with all of them, despite the possibility of increasing my chances of a heart attack.

---

(wades out of the sea of gooeyness)

So… yeah… Another life lesson taught by the one and only Iwaki Seiji!

Seriously, I decided to use this chapter to focus more on his relationship with the members of Evo Prime, particularly with Miyoko's outburst, which resulted in Seiji's threatening to leave the team. For starters, it explains why Seiji is so harsh with Miyoko most of the time. He isn't trying to break her spirit; he's just trying to give her a little insight on reality and its harsh tendencies. Considering the fact that she'd been hospitalized thanks to Shingo, you can understand why she's reluctant to accept his apology, but Seiji insists that she acknowledge it at least. I can't remember who it was, but someone once said, _To err is human; to admit it, superhuman_. Anyone can make a mistake; hell anyone can make the same mistake multiple times, but it's never easy to admit that you've made a mistake. Shingo put himself out on the line to admit that he'd made one hell of a stupid mistake, and Seiji knew it. What he wanted to do, however, was make Miyoko see it, but in her stubborn irrationality, she refused and instead took her anger out on Seiji. At least everything worked out in the end.

I'd decided to end this chapter with Jin and Seiji fighting like a bunch of immature playground kids, but my intention was to draw an emphasis upon their relationship as brothers. I also wanted to draw a comparison between the Iwaki brothers and the Takahashi brothers. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but when I look at the Takahashis' relationship as siblings, I get the impression that even though Ryousuke is proud of Keisuke and is protective of him, I sense a barrier. There's something that's preventing them from really benefiting from the full advantages of being brothers. Now, on the other hand, you've got Seiji and Jin. There's a six-year difference between both of them, but they're still comfortable in their relationship with each other to throw their pride as grown men aside and indulge in a stupid wrestling match. It's supposed to show that, no matter what Seiji becomes, he'll always love his little brother and isn't afraid to show it. (the way boys usually do… since I know a lot of brothers would balk at the whole direct eye "I love you" thing)

Don't fret, the brief bout of sappiness ends here and it returns to normal in the next chapter. Stay frosty, true believers!

-BoomChish-


	10. CH10: Streets Of Fire

I apologize profusely for the lack of updates. Between spiked hours at Krispy Kreme, lack of sleep and too many recent acquisitions of old 70s-80s cartoons on DVD (JEM is truly outrageous! Truly truly truly outrageous!), I've had my time occupied. But here's Chapter Ten! It's a long one too, but I didn't feel like cutting it up into parts.

Anyway, here it is!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Ten

Streets of Fire

Days passed and the accident faded into the middle recesses of my mind. The reason why I say the middle recesses of my mind and not the darkest recesses is because Shingo and Takeshi took to showing up to some of our practices and just watching our progress. Miyoko recovered quickly, and even she started being friendly towards the Night Kids boys. Shingo's arm was taking its sweet time to heal though, and I think he wasn't too happy about that, though Miyoko never shoved it down his throat.

One night on Happo, all three of them came to me and reported their times to me, whereupon I double-checked it with their previous times and nodded at the changes. Jin managed to take off six whole seconds off his previous record, while Alex managed to get five seconds off his previous time. (it was too bad that his previous time was a second and a half slower than Jin's previous time) As for Miyoko, she was roughly around the same skill level, merely clearing her previous record by several milliseconds. A part of me wondered whether she was deliberately attempting to halt her progress or whether she was really stuck.

Well, for one thing, she certainly took to acting weird whenever I was around. Like I could walk through the living room to get to the kitchen and she'd be sitting down on the couch reading a book; and the moment she'd see me, she'd immediately snap her book shut and acknowledge my presence. I didn't want to have to go out of the way to tell her that she was making me wary with her new behaviour, but it did disconcert me enough to try avoiding her path at home on certain occasions.

I wish I could say that all went well for Evo Prime right about then, but it was around that period where we'd been issued our first challenge. All the way from Todo Racing School on Enna, no less. As it turns out, it was all because Alex went for a joyride one day with some of his soccer pals (he plays soccer on the Nasu university team) and they went through Enna, catching the attention of the Todo students present. Of course, Alex couldn't resist showing off what he'd learned to his soccer buddies and had the unfortunate luck of doing so in front of the Todo boys. During one of our many practices, some random spectator came up to us and handed me an envelope. When we got home, I'd opened it and it'd simply said,

_For the one in the yellow Evo VII,_

Next Saturday,

10:00 PM at Happogahara

Be there

-Daiki Ninomiya

Todo Racing School-

I'd showed it to Alex and he read it briefly, then read it carefully. "What the hell kinda name is 'Daiki' anyway?" he snorted. "Sounds a lot like -"

"Oh, grow up, Alex," Miyoko cut him off, rolling her eyes at him. "If you think about it, _your_ name is weird here in Japan, considering it's American."

"Yeah, yeah… I was only kidding anyway," he'd answered defensively. He then peered at the letter again. "Todo Racing School, eh? Say Seiji… were you there when Project D went against Todo Racing School on Enna?"

I looked up at him. "Nope. Though I'd heard about it. In fact, if I remember correctly, Daiki Ninomiya drives a Honda Civic Type R, or better known as the EK9." I thought for a bit after that. "Although when Fujiwara went up against Tomoyuki Tachi, one of Todo's graduates, _he_ - Tachi, I mean - drove an EK9 as well… Kyouichi had told me a few things about it… I'm trying to remember…"

All three of them leaned in closer to hear what I had to say next.

"Let's see now… Well, all I can seem to recall is that the EK9 has a high performance engine that produces 185PS at 8200rpm. That and the rigidity of the body has been increased from previous Civic models and the weight has been reduced. There was more that he'd told me, but I can't seem to recall it. Oh well…" I shrugged.

Jin looked pensive. "Sounds more powerful than your average Civic…" He looked over at Alex. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you."

Alex put down the note and stretched his arms high above his head. Sparky lay nestled at his feet, his head resting on his front paws lazily. "Well, not like I'm worried. I'm sure I can beat him!"

I made a face. "The students at Todo aren't people to take lightly, Alex. If you recall me saying, Kyouichi graduated from Todo a long time ago, as did Tomoyuki Tachi, who's now a rally racer. The racers that seem to come out of there are all highly skilled. Remember, I never went pro; I'm just an amateur. So the stuff I'd taught you isn't really professional material. You're going to have to compensate for that with something else. I can only teach you as much as I'd learned myself and beyond that, you'll have to develop your own personal style of driving."

"We all knew _that_," he answered snidely.

Miyoko was staring at the screen of her laptop. "Well… from what I can see about Enna…" here, she turned around the laptop so that we could all see the screen, "it's basically a lot of straightaways and sharp hairpins in a staircase formation. Something like Akina in Gunma, but more straights and no consecutive hairpins."

Jin peered at it. "Wow… not like Happo in the slightest… Think you can do it, Alex?"

Alex cracked his knuckles. "Well, we shall see, won't we?"

I looked at Miyoko. "You've been to Akina?"

She had a bored look on her face. "We-ell… yeah… It was a long time ago though… I was barely eighteen and I'd just gotten my license. A classmate of mine suggested we go to Lake Akina to view the resort. Back _then_, I wouldn't dare tackle the corners at the speeds I do now, so it took me something like fifteen minutes to get to the top of the mountain and fifteen minutes to get back down. But I still remember parts of it." She then shrugged.

"I see…"

Alex then stood up. "Well, I guess I've gotta get practicing if I want to beat this Daiki guy on Happo. Hey, after all, Happo is _our_ track. I've got the advantage here!"

Miyoko looked over at him. "I don't know about that… After all, Happogahara's been there before we came along, so he may have gone for a ride on it before. We don't know for _sure_ that he's never been there, Alex, so it's not good to make that assumption."

"I know _that_. I merely said that since we practice so often on Happo, I've got the advantage here!"

She leaned back in her seat and shrugged. "Forget I said anything."

"In that case, I should start practicing first thing tomorrow evening. Can't let this guy stomp me, or else we'll be considered a laughingstock among the Tochigi road racing scene."

Jin looked at Alex with a grim look on his face. "That's all good and fine, but don't the soccer finals end this weekend? I thought that the weeknights during the week prior, you'd have to practice with the team, no? Especially since it's our university's team against Hakuoh University."

Alex's face fell in dismay. "Shit! I totally forgot about that! Now what am I gonna do?"

It was my turn to stand up. "Hey, you know prime time for driving is early in the mornings, like two to three AM. No one's up at that time, so Happo should be literally deserted. Sure, it may be stupendously late and you'll be dead tired the next day at school, but it'd help." My voice took on a serious tone. "Of course, if you don't _want_ to burn yourself out like that, then maybe one of us could race in your stead, using your Evo."

He looked affronted. "And have you steal away my chance of defeating someone from Todo Racing School and acquiring glory? I think not!" he exclaimed haughtily. All of us just stared at him in shock and surprise, even Sparky, who'd merely been dozing at his feet. There was an uncomfortable silence that went on for several minutes until Alex looked around at all of us and said, somewhat hesitantly, "Um… yeah…"

"Dude… where did _that_ come from?" Jin finally demanded.

"I seriously don't know…" He then scratched his head. "I guess I'm just excited about the race, y'know? I mean, it's the first challenge that's been issued out to Evo Prime and this could make or break us. So much is riding on this race."

"Yeah, so you better not lose!" Miyoko admonished, with a smile on her face.

"Oh don't worry, Miyo. I'll do my very best!" he exclaimed, grinning broadly.

I merely sat there and smiled along with the rest of them, although inside, I was shaking my head. He was no more ready than I was to take on Kyouichi at that given moment. And I knew that if he practiced his driving after his soccer practices, he'd only be more exhausted. Also, there was the fact that the race against Ninomiya was going to be after his tournament that same night. It didn't take a brainiac to figure out that he'd be completely burnt out after the tournament, regardless of whether his team won or lost.

The odds were stacked too much against his favor…

I tried one last time to dissuade him, "Alex… won't you be tired after the tournament? Are you sure it's a wise idea to take on Daiki that same night? I don't think it'd be good for you to take him on." Seeing the look on his face, I continued quickly, "It's not that I don't think you're skilled enough. It's just that when racing an opponent on a highly technical course like Happogahara, you wits need to be sharper than a knife. Especially since your opponent is from Todo Racing School. The last thing I'd want to see is you falling asleep behind the wheel while racing and have you run nose first into a guardrail. And you've all seen what happens when you lose control and get all touchy-feely with the guardrails." With that, I deliberately glanced in Miyoko's direction. It wasn't meant with any malice, but she understood my point and her encouraging smile vanished.

"Yeah, smashing into a guardrail isn't fun, Alex. I speak from experience, so trust me on this one," Miyoko added, a morose look on her face. She didn't like being reminded about that.

He made a face. "That goes without saying… But seriously, I _know_ I can do this! C'mon guys."

I let out a heavy sigh. "Well… if you really think you can do this, then go ahead. I guess I won't stop you…" Jin was looking at me funnily and Miyoko had a frown plastered on her face. Alex, on the other hand, was grinning broadly. He clapped his hands together, catching our attention.

"In any case, I'm off! Gotta go to bed, so that I'll be well rested for tomorrow's practices! Good night!" And with that, Alex fairly bounced out of the room. Sparky got up the instant Alex left and followed his master obediently. The rest of us merely exchanged glances after he left.

"Aniki, do you really think that it's a bad idea for Alex to race after his tournament?" Jin asked hesitantly the moment Alex was out of earshot.

"I don't _think_ it's a bad idea, I _know_ it's a bad idea. He's obviously going to go all out during the soccer tournament, so he's going to be exhausted after that. Then afterwards, he's going to go from that to Happo for the race against Daiki. He won't be functioning at one hundred percent. And that's what I'm worried about." I wrinkled my nose and stared at both Jin and Miyoko.

"Hm… Well, if Alex doesn't go and party with the rest of his teammates - assuming they win the tournament - he should be okay. If their team loses, then that theory falls flat in the water," Jin mused.

Miyoko had an evil grin on her face. "How about… When he goes and parties with his soccer buddies, I swap cars with him without his noticing and _I _race Daiki instead?" Her eyes were glittering as she said it. I frowned and shook my head almost immediately afterwards.

"I don't think so. He's the one who attracted Daiki's attention, so he wants to race _him_. Granted, he doesn't know specifically which one of us drives the yellow Evo - well, except me, since they know mine's the Evo IV _and_ it's white - but still… it wouldn't be fair to Alex if we took his place without his permission. Especially since he's so determined to prove his skills and make us known in Tochigi."

"I know… I'm just really worried that he might screw up and then our chances of being known as a skilled team will go flying out the window," she spoke quietly.

I stood up and stretched my arms high above my head. "Well, to be honest, it doesn't matter if we lose to one of Todo Racing School's students. One loss won't destroy our credibility. Especially since it's our first loss. We don't even have a win/loss record yet. If in the case of a loss, all we have to do is simply go back when we're ready and rechallenge them. It's not like what happened with Emperor and myself. I'd lost one too many times and nearly destroyed Emperor's credibility in the street racing scene, which is why Kyouichi got rid of me. After all, I _was_ Emperor's second-best driver; I should've had more success in defeating my rivals."

"But aniki…" Jin started to protest, but I held up one hand to stop him.

"Heh… You kids are just too young to understand, I guess. When you've lost as many times as I have, you understand that losing isn't the end of the world. Hell, Fujiwara even lost against Kyouichi and he still got back on his feet and went back to racing. And I did the same when I left Emperor and joined up with you guys." I was smiling amidst my brief monologue, but Miyoko and Jin were both staring at me in an odd way. I didn't know whether it was good or bad.

"Did he just call us _kids_?" Miyoko demanded indignantly, her gaze directed at my little brother. She had a smile on her face, which I did not like in the slightest.

Jin stared back at her. "I believe he _did!_" he answered just as sarcastically. If this is a joke…

"Let's get him!" she cried out and both of them sprang to their feet.

_Shit._ I turned and ran towards the stairs, but the both of them caught up to me and clotheslined me down onto the carpeted steps. I turned around and faced both of them, who were grinning broadly.

I addressed Miyoko first; "You've been getting tips from Jin on how to chase me down and beat the crap out of me, haven't you?"

"Yep!" she exclaimed happily, a huge smile on her face. "And it's fun!"

I then turned to my brother. "The last thing I need is _you_ encouraging _her_ to tackle me to the ground, Jin. It's bad enough _you_ do it, now I have to worry about _her_ doing it!"

"But aniki, I'd have thought that you'd _like_ having Miyoko Ieyasu tackle you to the ground in a playful manner. God knows millions of other guys would fight over the honor of her wrestling with them and you speak as if it's the greatest indignity in the world!" he protested.

She let out an exclamation of shock and punched him hard in the arm. "Jin! That's so gross!" He yelped and recoiled from her. Just then, Alex appeared at the top of the staircase, clad in nothing but boxer shorts and a ringer tee. He looked sleepy.

"What the hell is going on out here? Can't a guy get some sleep?"

Miyoko waved a hand at him in dismissal. "Nothing to see here. Go back to bed!" she chirped.

He stared at us with a confused look on his face before he shook his head and went back into his room, muttering, "I live in a house full of schizos…"

"Hey! You wanted to live in this house, so live with it!" Miyoko called out after him as she moved aside to let me and Jin rise from our downed positions.

An odd way to end the evening indeed…

---

The morning of Alex's soccer tournament against Hakuoh University was clear and sunny. The tournament was to be held at the soccer field on the local university campus. Spectators filled the bleachers from top to bottom and some even settled on picnic mats on the grass. All in all, it was a huge turnout.

Even though I wasn't really the sporty type, I figured I may as well go and give Alex some support, especially since Miyoko and Jin wanted to attend and cheer him on. Since I had the choice of either joining them or staying home and twiddling my thumbs, I chose to join them. As both teams came out onto the field, Miyoko excitedly pointed out which team was their university's and which one was the visiting team. I glanced over at the university team and Alex stood out like a sore thumb on the field. Jin explained to me that Alex was the forward player on the right, and was often the one who acted as a distraction for the opposing team while near the goal, he'd pass it to some smaller unsuspecting player on his team, who'd score the goal.

And indeed, he was right. By the end of the first half, their team was ahead by three goals. In addition to that, they had superb defense. The instant the ball would end up on their side of the field, there would be one of their teammates rushing forward to intercept it, as well as two other teammates covering the player who had possession of the ball. It was brightly done.

When the game ended, the crowd went into an uproar of cheers. The score was 2-5, with their university leading over Hakuoh U. Miyoko and Jin were proudly cheering with the rest of the spectators, and I joined in, even though I wasn't much of a sport enthusiast.

At least one victory was achieved today. But I had to admit, my mind was far more focused on the other victory that I hoped Alex could achieve tonight…

The victory against Daiki Ninomiya and Todo Racing School.

As the three of us made our way back to the university parking lot to our respective calls, my cell phone started to ring. I quickly answered it and heard Alex's bright enthusiastic voice.

"Hey Seiji, I'll be out as soon as I can. I'm just gonna chill with the guys a bit, then head on home and take a shower before I'll meet you guys at Happo, okay?"

I smiled a little. "Hey, knock yourself out, kid. Just don't be late, okay?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like snorting at myself. God knows Kyouichi often scolded _me_ for being late for practices, so now having _me_ tell my teammates not to be tardy was a tad ironic. While we were at home for a brief respite, Jin kept going on about how he'd never be able to pull off what Alex and his teammates did that day, even though he'd tried for the soccer team himself (and was sadly rejected). But most of what he said didn't even register; though it was not intentional.

My thoughts kept wandering back to the race that was set to occur in six hours. Even when Alex returned home for his shower, my fears weren't assuaged. Especially when, almost immediately afterwards, he merely collapsed on his bed and promptly fell asleep. The responsibility to wake him up became mine as I checked the hall clock and saw that it was nearly nine-fifteen. _That_ was the easy part; all I had to do was walk in and simply punch him in the shoulder with a gruff, "Hey, wake up. You have to be ready at Happo in less than an hour."

He literally sprang to his feet with a shocked, "Holy crap, why didn't you wake me up sooner?!" Immediately hustling me out of his room, he slammed the door shut with a muffled exclamation over how he needed close to half an hour to get ready. Miyoko heard the slam and came upstairs to see what was going on. I briefly exclaimed the situation to her, whereupon she snorted. "And I thought us women were supposed to be the ones who take forever to get changed."

"What exactly did you mean by 'us women', Miyoko?" I demanded, my eyes narrowing.

She held up her hands in defense. "I wasn't referring to you, Seiji. When I said 'us women', I meant me and the rest of the female population in the world." She shook her head. "Either way, you've been quiet for most of the evening… You're worried about the race tonight, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "Does it show?"

She inclined her head. "Yeah… Well, I'm worried too… 'Cause, I mean… if Alex loses… does that mean that other racers won't consider us a challenge and just think of us as a joke?"

"I told you this before, Miyoko… If Alex loses, it's no big deal. We can still recover from it. In any case, it's way too premature to think in that direction. The race hasn't even begun yet. We still don't know the outcome."

"And we probably never will, if Alex doesn't get that butt of his out here this instant!" she exclaimed, raising her voice, presumably so that he could hear us. At that instant, his door opened and he emerged, pulling on a blue shirt.

"Damn, you two are impatient!" he muttered as he pulled his head through the neckline of his shirt. Then he smiled his infectious smile. "Let's go!"

---

The galleys were packed the moment we arrived. News must've traveled extremely fast then. I couldn't catch all of the familiar faces, but there were a couple. The Night Kids had decided to show up, even though they'd come a long way from Gunma. They were accompanied by two striking young ladies, both of whom I had no idea who they were, but these two merely stayed off to the side for now. Both Shingo and Takeshi stepped up to greet us the instant we'd pulled over at the starting line of the outbound course and emerged from our cars.

"I can't believe that you guys are actually going ahead with this battle against Todo Racing School. Aren't they one of the best teams here in Tochigi?" Shingo demanded.

"Better than Emperor," I answered succinctly. "After all, their leader, Todo-san was the one who taught Kyouichi most of what he knows. So it's fair to say that these people are at least at his skill level, if not higher."

"And _why_ didn't you tell us earlier?" Alex demanded, his face turning several shades whiter. "It's bad enough I'm scared to death having to race this Daiki guy and now you pop out with this?"

I gave him a sidelong glance. "I have faith in your abilities, Alex. Just do your best. And for God's sake, calm down. The last thing we need is you having a heart attack while driving. You'll do fine."

Alex merely pursed his lips. At that instant, there was a roar of unfamiliar engines and a yellow Civic Type R came into view. Following closely behind was a white Honda Integra Type R. I watched them carefully as the Integra pulled off to the side, while the Civic merely took its position at the starting line next to Alex's Evo VII. There was an ominous silence as the driver of the Civic, Daiki Ninomiya, emerged from his vehicle.

As far as looks went, he didn't _look_ intimidating - his hair was black and fell like a wet mop molding to his head and he had a small goatee not unlike Alex's. He was of average height and he seemed a bit on the thin side. His partner, the one who drove the Integra, was a bit taller, but bore a mop of reddish hair and bright freckles across his face, in addition with on hell of an eerie smile. But if there's one thing I'd learned after messing with Fujiwara, it's that looks can be deceiving.

If they were indeed Todo students, then they _had _to have skills.

"So… you're the one with the yellow Evo VII who passed us on our home course, huh." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, and it was directed at Alex. _He _merely stood his ground and nodded mutely. When he didn't respond, they exchanged glances before Daiki spoke again.

"It _was_ you, right? Because I'm not one to go picking on the wrong prey now…"

Alex shook his head. "No, no… It definitely was me… In any case… how's this gonna go down?"

Daiki stared at Alex in silence before he spoke again, "I take it this is your first official race then? We'll do this the classic touge style. There will be a leader and a chaser. The leader's job is to outrun the chaser, and the chaser's job is to keep within five meters of the leader. If the leader manages to outrun the chaser, he wins. If the chaser manages to keep up, they will switch positions until a winner is declared. Sounds good enough for you?"

He had a look of confusion on his face, so I decided to step in and make it clearer; "Look, basically you two aren't going to race neck and neck. You'll both start off at a relative pace with one in front of the other. The one in front will give off a signal - usually by flashing his lights - then you'll accelerate and the race will begin. The person in front has to lose the person in back in order to win. The person in back has to keep up with the person in front so that at the end of the course, they can switch positions and the person in back ends up in front and has to outrun the person in back. Makes sense?"

"Yeah… sort of… Technically, it should mean that the leader has the opportunity to win, right?" Alex queried, looking at me, his eyes inquisitive.

"Well, yeah… most of the time, since classic touge battles usually take place on extremely narrow mountain passes where there's virtually no room for multiple cars side by side. But since on Happo, there are some places where the road widens, it's possible for the chaser to overtake the leader. If the chaser manages to overtake the leader before the designated finish line, it's the chaser who wins."

"So… I should choose the position of leader, right?" Alex queried, looking at me with hopeful eyes. My lips tightened, for I knew he was going to ask me this question.

"Well, you're the one who will be racing. Which position do _you_ think is better?" I reasoned with him. He scratched his head, then shrugged and looked over at Jin and Miyoko.

"Leader," Jin assured him. "It's the best chance you have of outrunning him!"

Miyoko merely frowned, then walked over to me and whispered something in my ear so that the others couldn't hear her. But as I heard her words, my eyebrows shot up, for she'd been thinking exactly what I'd been thinking:

"Wouldn't it be better for Alex to take the position of chaser, since he can watch Daiki's moves along the way and pass him at the optimum opportunity? Since Daiki's a student at Todo Racing School, he's obviously better than Alex, and if _he_ took the position of chaser, he'd notice Alex's weak points all too easily, wouldn't he?"

I smiled grimly, then I whispered back to her, "Well, I'm glad you're thinking along the same lines as I am." Her face brightened at that, then she immediately marched over to Alex, grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him off to the side away from the rest of us. They watched in curiosity (thankfully, the creepy redhead stopped smiling so eerily), and Jin came to stand next to me. "What was that all about, aniki?"

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Eventually, Alex returned to his position facing Daiki and Miyoko merely stood off to the side next to Jin and me. We all watched as Alex faced Daiki straight in the eye, then said, "I'll take the position of chaser, if that's all right with you."

Daiki's eyes never wavered, as did his partner. "It's fine with me."

"What?" Jin blurted out. "Chaser? Alex, are you _nuts?_"

He shot Jin a cold look. "Trust me on this, Jin." Then he got into his car and started the engine, as Daiki did the same. Then, Daiki started off at a reasonable pace and Alex took off after him. Right before the bend started, Daiki flashed his lights and both cars took off and disappeared down the road.

Jin looked like he was having an apoplexy. "I can't believe Alex took the position of chaser! He's so going to lose this one!" he complained.

"Not quite," one of the girls who'd accompanied Shingo and Takeshi spoke as she stepped closer. She had long blond hair and as far as I could tell, a well-defined figure. The brown-haired girl followed her closely, but didn't say a word. I thought she was pretty as well, if a bit shy. Jin raised his eyebrows at her, then his anger quickly evaporated.

"Now why would a pretty young thing such as yourself say that?" he asked sweetly. The blonde's expression turned dour.

"Knock off the sweet stuff, boy. I said that because your fellow teammate merely wanted to see how his opponent raced; and you can't really do that through your rearview mirror, can you? Not if you're busy focusing on the road ahead. Now, if your opponent is occupying that space in the road ahead, it gets much easier, doesn't it?"

"That's what I'd said!" Miyoko agreed, nodding vigorously. Shingo looked at both his friends, then at us, then he stepped forward.

"Forgive me for not doing this sooner. I'd like you all to meet my friends, Sayuki and Mako. They're the Impact Blue combination from Gunma and they're the best racers on Usui. Mako, Sayuki, I'd like you to meet Miyoko Ieyasu and Seiji and Jin Iwaki of Evo Prime."

I took a step forward. "Usui, you said? By any chance, did someone from Emperor pass by your area sometime nearly two years ago? Some blond guy in an Evo IV?"

The blonde, Sayuki, sniffed derisively. "Yeah, I remember him. Such an arrogant bastard too. He kept saying how girls couldn't be good racers at all. Well, we showed him. Didn't we, Mako?" The brunette, Mako, nodded in agreement.

My look turned pensive. "That's odd… Satake said that there wasn't anyone worth racing on Usui… I guess you must've crushed his pride so badly that he didn't want to even tell Kyouichi that he'd lost to you two."

It was Sayuki's turn to peer at me. "Wait a minute… You… You used to be a member of Emperor?"

I inclined my head. "Yeah. I used to be the second-best driver of Emperor. If Satake hadn't kept things quiet about you two, I think I'd have come to Usui to take you two on. Somehow, I'm glad he didn't."

"Wait a minute…" This time, it was Mako who spoke. "If you're… Then you were the one who…" She looked over at Takeshi as her words trailed off.

_The one who defeated him_. That was what she wanted to say. And I could see the look of humiliation on Takeshi's face. Almost as if it were beckoning to me, I looked over at my beloved Evo IV, which still had the upside-down stickers on the back wing. If I had taken them off before, I'd have never found out that it was Shingo who'd harmed Miyoko. But now…

I let out a heavy sigh as I walked past all of them and went over to my car. The team stickers of all the teams I'd defeated while in Emperor were still there. As if in a daze, I started to peel all of them off, bunching them up into a ball and I threw them aside. They had no reason to be on my wing anymore. They were victories in the name of Emperor. And I wanted to close that chapter of my racing career. For good.

"Aniki! What are you doing?" Jin cried out in alarm as he ran over to me. Miyoko stood frozen to her spot, but she stared at me in shock and confusion. But _I_ knew what I was doing.

I stopped at the Night Kids sticker, leaving that one for last. I knew this wasn't really much of a means to repair what I'd done, but I had to try…

I carefully peeled off both pieces, then I walked over to where Takeshi was standing. "Hey… um… I don't know if this will suffice to make up for what I did to you and your team two years ago, but…" here, I held out the pieces of his team sticker, "You can have this back. I'm sorry."

Both Shingo and Takeshi looked stunned as the GT-R driver merely stared at the pieces of his sticker, then at me, then slowly reached out and took them from my hands. He had difficulty finding his voice. He finally managed to choke out a strangled, "T-thank you…"

Shingo was the first to blurt out, "But _why_? You'd beaten us fair and square and it _was_ a part of the stipulation when you'd raced him. Why?"

I shook my head. "It was a victory done for Emperor. I'm no longer a part of Emperor. I don't want the mistakes I made in that team to affect my goals with Evo Prime. That's why."

They were both nonplussed by my words. Sayuki merely exchanged glances with her partner and nodded, then said, "That was very nobly said."

I then bowed to them. "Thank you."

Miyoko finally stepped forward. "Just a simple question, if I may?" Both girls looked at her. "Shingo said that you two are the best racers on Usui. Do you race together or do you have separate cars?"

Mako inclined her head. "We race together. I drive and Sayuki navigates. That way, it becomes easier for me to concentrate solely on the road and she basically just points out the sharpness of the upcoming turns and whether there are any incoming cars."

I opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by my walkie-talkie going off. I pulled it off my belt and answered it. "Yeah?"

"This is the second checkpoint. Ninomiya's still in the lead, but Alex is right behind him. So far, any attempts that Alex has made to pass him have failed."

"Okay. I'm not too worried though. There's still a lot of track left. And even if he doesn't manage to pass, if he stays close to his tail, then they'll just switch positions at the finish line and come back here." As I put away my walkie-talkie, Miyoko looked over at me, a frown creasing her face.

"He's not doing so good, is he?"

"Whatever gave you that idea? From what they told me, he's doing fine so far. So what if he hasn't passed Daiki? He can still recover in the second round, if he manages to stay on his tail. I'd only be worried if he lets him get away."

Miyoko merely made a face, but nodded at my comment. She then looked over at the ladies from Usui again. "So you two race in the same car? What car do you drive?"

Mako pointed to a blue car that was off to the side. "That's our car right there." I looked over and peered at it. To my surprise, it was a rare Nissan SilEighty. It was a car purely designed for road racing purposes. The Nissan 180SX was considered a superior FR drifting car in its day, but the flip-up lights proved to be too costly to repair constantly when drifters would get into accidents. Hence why they decided to make a hybrid between the Nissan 180SX and the Nissan S13, using the front light structure of the S13 on the back structure of a 180SX to form the SilEighty.

"A Nissan SilEighty, I see? Now that would have been interesting to race against," I commented politely. Mako had a questioning look on her face while Sayuki merely poked at me.

"Well, if your former teammate hadn't turned chicken and actually told you, maybe you would have. Either way, maybe one of these days, we'll extend a challenge to you and your team. Not now, but sometime in the future." A broad smile and a wink accompanied her words.

Jin stood next to me and smiled at them. "Well, that would certainly be something very interesting to see, no? It's always interesting to see two lovely ladies beating the boys at their own game, since it's so rare."

Sayuki merely scoffed at him. "Jeez, you try too hard."

"What did I say?" he demanded plaintively, almost on the verge of whining. I was about to shoot a smart remark back at him, but Miyoko marched over to him and yanked on his long hair, causing him to yelp out loud and jump back in surprise.

"So you don't think I'm a lovely lady now, do you?" she growled.

"What? No! No, of _course_ I think you are, Miyo! It's just that… well… I see you every day… and so… it's like…"

"It's like you're an idiot, Jin. Plain and simple," I cut in, laughing. Jin merely made a face, while Miyoko pouted and glared daggers at him. Takeshi and Shingo had moved closer to view all the commotion.

"Seiji, how do you deal with… with team members like them?" Takeshi queried, causing Jin and Miyoko to both glare at him. He sidled off to one side, but kept his gaze leveled at me. Sayuki and Mako also seemed interested to know my answer, so I merely shrugged and tried to stop laughing.

"Well… since Jin is my younger brother, I'm used to his crazy antics. And since Miyoko and Alex are Jin's friends and classmates, one can draw upon the conclusions that they all think alike in one way or another. So basically, I'm just dealing with three very strange younger siblings."

"Aniki!" Jin cried out in shock and embarrassment before he quickly punched me in the side. I grunted and stepped aside to avoid any other onslaught. Miyoko, on the other hand, remained silent and didn't move from her position. I quickly noticed her lack of reaction and was about to comment on it when my walkie-talkie went off again.

Everyone remained quiet as I answered it. "What's up this time?"

"This is the finish line. They're coming… we'll soon be able to…" There was an abrupt silence, then I heard their engines roaring through the walkie-talkie. Suddenly, there was an loud outburst, "Oh my God, you won't believe this! Alex is in the lead! He managed to pass Ninomiya! How, I have no clue, but he did it! He won! He won!"

Miyoko cheered and clapped her hands together. "I knew he'd do it if he took the position of chaser!" she exclaimed. Jin let out a sigh of relief and I was merely stunned as I slowly lowered the walkie-talkie in shock. It was then that I'd remembered the other guy from Todo Racing School… the redhead in the Integra. He was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably driven off while we were distracted.

But something wasn't right… Why didn't someone report in when Alex passed Daiki? Wasn't there someone watching from that position? Or was it one of those remote corners of Happo where no one would expect to see anything important?

Either way, it just wasn't _right_… To be honest, I wasn't expecting Alex to win in the first round. Considering Daiki's experience, I would've expected the best Alex could do in the first round was keep up with the EK9 and get a feel for his techniques and then use them to his advantage in the second round.

_What exactly happened?_

---

Yeah, it's a long one, like I said. There's a lot of superfluous crap in there too, but… Yeah… sweatdrop _Anyhow…_

I tried to further emphasize the closeness the members of Evo Prime tend to have by letting Miyoko and Jin tackle Seiji in the house when he refers to them as kids. It shows that over the weeks, Miyoko has finally managed to mellow out over the idea of Seiji being the leader. It also shows that she respects him more like an older brother (something she lacks, her being the eldest of Ieyasu's children) and that she's not afraid or shy to treat him like an older brother.

As you can probably guess, I did some research on the Civic Type R before I wrote this chapter. I figured why not let Seiji seem smarter than usual for once and make him remember the specs of a car other than a LanEvo. And the EK9 seems like a perfect choice. Though no matter how powerful a Civic is, I wouldn't be caught dead driving one. In my area, nearly everyone and their mom owns a Civic. No originality at all.

Speaking of remembering cars other than the Evos, there's also the first appearance of Impact Blue in the story. Considering Shingo and Takeshi are now supporters of Evo Prime after their brief confrontation, I figured it wouldn't be half bad to bring in Mako and Sayuki to give a bit more diversity to the characters, considering nearly all of the important ones aside from Miyoko are male up until now. I'm not sure on whether they'll actually race or not, but I've still a long way to go, so anything's possible.

I had a long discussion with my brother over this fanfic and he gave me a lot of ideas on what to do and what to add. He was very much in agreement with GT4SilverShadow's idea (thank you, by the way ) of having Seiji remove his stickers from his wing, which I had him do. My brother also suggested that I make Seiji return the cut Night Kids sticker to Takeshi, even though it's in pieces. In a way, it serves as a means for Seiji to make amends for some of the stuff he did in Emperor, when he was all cocky and careless of others. He obviously won't be able to be rid of all of it, but whatever little he can eliminate, it's good enough for him to move on as leader of Evo Prime. I also got an amazing idea from my brother on how to end this fic, buuuuuuuuuut… well, I'm not there yet, so I can't say anything about it here just yet!

Who else saw Greece's victory over Portugal?

BoomChish


	11. CH11: Crazy For Your Love

I did leave the last chapter at a brief cliffhanger, no? Well, time to clear things up… yes… clear things up… (looks around shiftily)

Here's Chapter Eleven; all freshened up and raring to go!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Eleven

Crazy For Your Love

We all waited for a while before both Alex's Evo VII and Daiki's EK9 returned. There was a silence as both cars pulled up next to us and both drivers got out. Daiki looked suitably humbled while Alex looked… grim... Now my interest had been piqued even more.

Daiki was the first to speak as he looked around. "Hey, where did Sakai go?" I'm assuming Sakai was the freaky guy with the eerie smile.

Jin shrugged, as did the rest of us. "He left while we were all talking. I don't know where he went."

He made a face, then shook his head. "Well, okay. He'll show up eventually."

I stepped forward. "Okay, what happened? All I got was a message from the finish line saying Alex was in front when you two crossed. How did he pass you?"

"Well…" Daiki scratched his head and looked somewhat embarrassed. Alex also looked sheepish, so I turned to him. "What happened, Alex? How'd you pass him?"

Alex glanced over at Daiki, who nodded slowly. He then took a deep breath and said, "Well… it wasn't far from the finish line… We were both approaching this sharp right turn and I'd managed to close the gap between myself and Daiki's EK9… He had the inside track and I was slowly creeping by on the outside - the road was wide enough for that at that point - and…" He paused, looking at Daiki for confirmation, then went on, "as we both turned the corner, there was this person on the road picking something up... like a thrown cell phone or something of that sort… This person was standing on the inside track and… well…"

"I freaked out for a split second and hit the brakes instead of swerving to the side," Daiki cut in. "In that split second, Alex accelerated and took the lead…" He closed his eyes and lowered his head in shame.

There was a long and deathly silence, broken only by my beloved brother blurting out, "Dude… that's the most _retarded_ reason I'd ever heard of losing…" then he yelped as Miyoko elbowed him sharply in the side. "Hey, it's true!"

"Don't rub it in!" she hissed.

"Wait a second…" I cut in, drawing everyone's attention before I continued to speak, "So from what you're telling me… at that crucial turn, you and Alex were almost side by side? So that when the person just suddenly appeared as you turned, you had no room to swerve, so you freaked and hit the brakes?" I queried, looking at Daiki.

"I had just enough space to swerve around them, but I didn't. I freaked out first and hit the brakes." He shook his head in disbelief. "It's almost the same way Tomo lost to Fujiwara… I can't believe it."

I inclined my head. "When you mention it, that's true… I remember hearing about how something ran across the road and Tachi freaked for a second, but since Fujiwara couldn't see it, he still kept on and passed him. But on the other hand, Fujiwara had his headlights off to make sure that Tachi couldn't see him… You both had your headlights on the whole time, no?"

Both of them nodded.

"Well… Then it's settled. Alex is the winner of this battle," I replied firmly.

Daiki sighed, then turned to face Alex. "I should probably be angrier than I am right now, but I won't bother. You won fair and square." He smiled a bit. "I underestimated you and your team."

"That was to be expected. They're still relatively new to the whole racing scene. But even I'm impressed by their progress," I admitted, knowing full well that my role in their improvement was only partial to the actual outcome. Daiki then looked over at Miyoko and Jin with a pensive look before he nodded again and smiled thinly.

"Well, whenever the rest of your team members decide to get embroiled in a heated battle on the streets, I'd like to be there. It'd be interesting to see what would become of it." And with that, he nodded to everyone, got into his Civic and drove off. We all watched him go before we all turned to face Alex, who still had that grim look on his face.

"I still don't think I won that race fairly… But… oh well…" He shrugged and his infectious grin lit up on his face. Jin started to smile like an idiot and Miyoko let out a small chuckle, then went to give him a warm hug. He was also on the receiving end of several volleys from the Night Kids and Impact Blue.

I couldn't even believe it myself. Alex won against a Todo Racing School student in a classic touge battle… on the _first round_. Yes, it was pretty much luck that granted him the victory, but still… It was considerably shocking _and_ relieving.

Evo Prime has its first victory. The first step in our future winning streak… hopefully…

---

A few days had passed since Alex's fortuitous triumph over Daiki and Todo Racing School and it was early in the morning. I'd already had my breakfast and had already headed out the door to my car, ready for work, when I'd noticed something odd about the cars. There was nothing wrong with _mine_, of course, but on the others…

Well, okay… If there's one thing that sets my Evo apart from most of the others on the road, it was the fact that mine had a red MONSTOR sticker on the front hood. Since my car was mostly consistent of parts from Monster International, I'd decided to slap their logo on my car, deliberately requesting the decal maker to misspell it for a uniqueness that could only be found with me.

Well, as it seemed, that was no longer the case.

Miyoko's Evo now had a yellow MONSTOR sticker on her hood, Alex's Evo had a blue MONSTOR sticker on the hood and Jin's Evo had a white MONSTOR sticker. And since _my_ car was white and already had the red sticker, it was almost as if our cars had some sort of color cycle going on.

I experienced a mixture of emotions at that point in time, and I did the first thing that came to mind as I stepped back into the house for a brief moment.

"_MIYOKO!"_

She came running downstairs within two minutes, followed by my brother and Alex. All three of them had obviously heard my loud bellow and came downstairs, even though I'd only addressed one of them specifically. Without saying a word, I led them outside and pointed to the cars. "What in the hell is _that _on your cars?"

Alex and Jin didn't seem surprised at all by the stickers, meaning they'd been in on it the whole time. Miyoko just shrugged and, with a smile on her face, said, "Well, I figured since we're a team and all, we should probably all have a team sticker, no?"

She had a point, and I had to admit, my anger had quickly converted into laughter (which I repressed) considering the whole thing looked absolutely hilarious to me, even though I knew her intentions were good. I then said, "But what does MONSTOR have to do with Evo Prime?"

"Nothing. It's more the color scheme that makes it match our team name. Besides, I thought too long and hard on designing a team logo for Evo Prime ever since our team started, and all my attempts looked childish or way too fancy, so I just decided to go with the MONSTOR stickers with different colors. They came in yesterday, so Alex, Jin and I put them on our cars last night after you'd gone to bed."

I remained silent for a while after that before I slowly spoke, "You guys… you're idiots. All a bunch of idiots." And I burst into laughter. I don't know _why_, but I couldn't help it. All I knew was that it was an ingenious idea and it had definitely surprised me. And I was honored that they would go so far to revere me in such a fashion.

I kept on laughing until I'd realized that I was the only one doing so. I slowly stopped and saw that Alex and Jin both had solemn looks dominating their faces. I then saw Miyoko and she looked like she was about to cry. She then spoke, addressing my brother and Alex in a small helpless voice, "He doesn't like it…" She then turned and ran back inside the house. Alex frowned at me before he ran back inside after her. Jin and I were the only two left standing outside on the front porch.

He looked at me with a reproachful look. "Why'd you have to do that, aniki? When she'd told us the idea, we thought it was brilliant and so we agreed to help her out. You didn't have to go and insult her like that. She really thought you'd like it."

"And I _do_ like it, Jin. I just…" here, I let out a heavy sigh, "It all just came out wrong. Sure, it looks silly to me, and I know for sure some racers are going to think we're really cheesy by having the same sticker like that with different colors… But I really like it. Seriously." I sighed again and shook my head. "_I'm_ the idiot here… I better go in and apologize…" I made to go inside, but Jin stopped me.

"I'll tell her for you, aniki. Besides, it's quarter to seven. You're going to be late for work."

"Who gives a shit about work? I can't just go and leave her like that," I protested.

He was insistent. "I'll try my best to straighten things out. Just go."

I still didn't want to budge until he shook his fist at me in a threatening manner, which prompted me to get into my car and drive off to work. I knew better than to argue with my little brother when he made _that_ gesture. I may be his older brother, but he's certainly got enough clout to knock me out.

I wish I could say that at the hospital, I was able to get my mind off what had happened that day, but it was next to impossible. The look on Miyoko's face after I'd stopped laughing was enough to stab me forcefully in the stomach, and I felt like a total moron for treating her like that. It even got worse when my coworkers would keep congratulating me on Alex's win against Daiki and would keep asking me when the next race was going to happen, along with who was going to race next.

It especially didn't help that most of them were especially eager to see Miyoko's race, whenever that was supposed to happen. I'd simply told them that it'll happen when it'll happen. And with that, I clammed up on the subject. After all, it was fair to say I didn't want to discuss it.

When I'd finally arrived home, I'd parked my car in the driveway and made my way up to the front porch. With my keys ready, I was about to unlock the door, when I heard voices inside. The living room window was open, and while I knew they couldn't see me through the curtains, I could certainly hear them.

Alex was saying, "Look, I know how you feel… and Jin _did_ say that Seiji _did_ like the stickers, just that he said it the wrong way… But you _have_ to tell him!"

Jin's voice: "Look Miyo, you're only going to go and shoot yourself in the foot if you don't tell aniki about this. This goes beyond just you. This is something concerning _all_ of us, especially my brother!"

Miyoko didn't speak, but I heard someone stomping up the stairs and a door slamming. Then I heard Jin speak to Alex: "If she won't tell him, we'll have to tell him ourselves…"

_Something_ happened, and it definitely involved me. Except that Miyoko was still angry at what had happened this morning, hence why she didn't want to tell me. I unlocked the door and stepped inside the house. The first thing I heard was Sparky barking, then amid that, I heard Alex whisper urgently, "He's here!" and Jin say, "Hi, aniki!"

I closed the front door behind me and stepped into the living room. "Hey… What's up?" I then looked around, pretending to look for Miyoko, then looked over at Jin. "She's still mad at me, isn't she?"

"Yeah… I tried telling her what you'd said, but she didn't seem to care." He then fell silent, exchanging a furtive glance with Alex. I caught it and immediately said, "What's wrong?"

Alex let out a long labored sigh. "It's a long story… and you're not gonna believe this…"

I sat down on the divan and both of them sat opposite me on the sofa. I then shrugged. "All right, spill. What's the story?"

"We've got another challenge on our hands… well… mostly on Miyoko's hands, but she's too tied up in her self-anger to admit it to you… She's planning on facing it out alone, without your help or your guidance."

My eyes widened. "Miyoko got challenged to a race? By who? And where?"

Jin's mouth was drawn in a tight line. "You remember that redhead guy who came with Daiki in the white Integra? The one with the creepy smile? I think Daiki said his name was Sakai or something like that…" When I nodded, he continued, "Well, Miyoko ran into him at the university - I don't think he's a student there, but I think one of his relatives is… anyhow…"

Alex continued, "Like the classic boy-meets-girl shtick in lame high school movies, she ran into him while running for her class and her stuff fell all over the floor. He went to help her gather her stuff, then he saw her and started to get mad and was about to challenge her then and there, but she told him to meet her later, at the same spot, after her class." He shook his head, prompting Jin to finish the story, "Anyway, after her class ended, she went back to see him and he told her that he wanted to challenge her to a race on Enna this Saturday at ten in the evening. And she accepted."

I narrowed my eyes, trying to gather in all the necessary information. "So what you're telling me is that Miyoko has to race Sakai in his Integra on Enna this Saturday?"

"It gets worse, aniki…" I raised my eyebrows at that. "It's an _uphill_ match."

I frowned at the mention of _that_. Uphill matches weren't strictly about skill, they were more about car power and skill intertwined. Miyoko could have all the skills in the world, but if Sakai's skills matched hers, or surpassed them _in addition_ to having a more powerful car, there would be no chance of her winning this race. And I knew that the boys of Todo Racing School definitely had some internal modifications done to their cars to make them run faster and smoother. As for Miyoko's ride, I wish I could say the same…

"Do you guys know if Miyoko did any internal changes to her car? Like swap her intake system, or tweak her suspension, or…"

Jin shook his head grimly. "Miyoko never cared for internal modifications. Her car is bone stock, aside from common replacement parts, like her spark plugs or her brakes when they wore out. Why do you ask, aniki?"

I let out a groan and buried my hands in my face. "She's screwed."

Alex let out a squawk of alarm. "Why do you say _that_, Seiji?"

"Isn't it obvious? Sakai's a member of Todo Racing School and he's obviously the one who races on the uphill, meaning his car is suited for racing on the uphill. If Miyoko's car has no internal modifications, she doesn't stand a chance. It's obvious he's more skilled than she is, and along with a more powerful car, he's got this race set for him. In case you didn't know, uphill battles are more about the car's power than a driver's skill. If both drivers have equal skill, yet one has a stronger car, the one with the stronger car will dominate on the uphill course." I waited for this to sink in before I continued, "This is why most racers prefer the downhill battle. That element of car's power is taken out of play."

Both of them looked at each other in dismay. "Now what?" Jin demanded.

I shrugged helplessly. "Nothing much you two can do at the moment. I, for one, have to make peace with Miyoko as soon as possible, so that she'll allow me to help her, lest she really just wants to lose to spite me. But somehow I doubt that."

"I doubt it too," Alex agreed, then sighed. "Well, I suppose you could try catching her alone… Preferably not in her room, since I remember seeing her come home with one of those ornamental Norse broadswords and seeing her hang it on her wall. When I went to check in on her one day, she was swinging it around while the She-Ra theme song was playing off her Winamp player on her computer."

"What?" I blurted out as I stared at him blankly. Jin looked just as confused as I did.

He shook his head. "Never mind. It's a show we both used to watch as little kids. Hell, I was surprised when Miyo told me that she used to watch She-Ra and He-Man as a little girl. I was obsessed about that stuff when I was small."

"You've lost me," Jin cut in.

"Well, whatever. Either way, if you can talk to her one on one, you might be able to explain yourself and what you did. Because when it all boils down, Miyo doesn't want to hear Jin defending you, or even me defending you. She wants to hear what you have to say yourself. Even if she won't admit it."

I acquiesced and agreed that I'd do just that.

For the majority of the afternoon, I'd spent it napping in my room until about six in the evening, whereupon I went downstairs into the kitchen to get a snack. Just my luck, Miyoko was seated at the kitchen counter, calmly eating a bowl of rocky road ice cream and staring out the back porch window. She turned halfway when I came in, then she just merely nodded in acknowledgement of my presence before she went back to eating her ice cream.

"Hey Miyoko… how are you?" I began conversationally as I placed myself close to her line of sight without obstructing it. She didn't say a word and there was an uncanny silence, save for the clink of her spoon against her glass bowl and her methodical devouring of the ice cream.

"Listen… I, um… I'm sorry for hurting your feelings this morning… I mean, when I laughed and called you idiots, I didn't mean that I thought it was stupid… I said that because I was so surprised that… that you'd actually go and do something like that for me… I was really surprised, and I do like it… that's why I said that…" I knew I was babbling, but I couldn't help myself.

Miyoko didn't answer, she merely continued eating her ice cream.

At this point, I didn't know what to say. I knew that if I started yelling at her, she'd either start yelling back at me, or throw her ice cream in my face, so I remained calm.

"Hey, why don't we go for a drive? Just you and me?"

She finished swallowing a huge spoonful of ice cream before she put her spoon down and licked her lips. She appeared to think about it before she spoke, "Where?" The first words she spoke to me so far since our brief misunderstanding this morning.  
"Wherever you'd like."

Miyoko hesitated, then picked up her bowl and went to the sink, rinsing out the remaining ice cream before she stuck both the bowl and the spoon in the dishwasher. Then she wiped her hands on her jeans and said, "Even Irohazaka?"

I sucked in my breath and said, very slowly, "It's risky, considering we may run into someone from Emperor… but if that's what you want, I won't argue."

She then shook her head and stared out the porch window once more. Then she said, "Enna."

The drive to Enna, for the most part, was a silent one. Miyoko merely stared out her window and I kept my eyes on the road. The silence was deafening. I was starting to become nervous.

Finally, Miyoko broke the silence by saying, "Alex and Jin told you about the challenge that was issued to me, didn't they?"

I nodded, then I said, "Miyoko, you haven't done anything to your car, have you?"

"No, of course not," she said indignantly. "Why would I?"

"Well, if Sakai's car is more powerful than yours, then you're as good as toast on the uphill," I answered bluntly. "Enna is his home course, not yours, so he obviously must know it like the back of his hand. You, on the other hand, are the visitor, so you still need to familiarize yourself with the track. Now, since his car is obviously optimally suited for racing on the uphill, you've got your work cut out for you."

She was momentarily cowed by that comment, until she said, very slowly, "But I know nothing about modifying cars performance-wise…"

I smiled at that. "Now that's where _I_ come in…"

---

So _that's_ how Alex beat Daiki… Well, okay… so it _does_ sound like the way Takumi beat Tomoyuki on Happo. But in all seriousness, it was either that or have Alex distract Daiki with a strobe light or something of that sort. Because it's obvious here that Daiki is more skilled than Alex, given his time with Todo Racing School. Otherwise, there is no logistic way in hell for Alex to pass Daiki in the first round of a classic touge battle unless Daiki _really_ screwed up. And considering his skills, what are the odds of that?

Since I didn't want to have to go into great detail in describing Evo Prime's purported team logo (much less actually design one for those who'd want to physically see it), I just figured I'd take Seiji's beloved MONSTOR sticker (is it an O or an A? 'Cause I prefer it being an O) and play around with the colors. Also considering his sticker is red, and since Miyoko's car is red, I decided to have them formulate a pattern with the stickers. Hence why they all have MONSTOR stickers with colors corresponding to someone else's car color. And yes, I do think that Seiji's MONSTOR sticker is cool. Besides, for anyone who's played Initial D Arcade Stage, what's the point of getting the Evo IV if not for the MONSTOR sticker, eh?

As for the sword thing, I merely threw that in after walking around in my local shopping mall and seeing the amount of gawkers in the novelty sword (and other various medieval themed items) store. I used to watch He-Man and She-Ra all the time as a little girl, and considering Miyoko's from a wealthy family, it wouldn't be so far-fetched to have her grow up on foreign television, hence why I added the She-Ra reference. (And since Alex is American, it would make sense that he used to watch it as a kid.)

Fabulous secrets were revealed to me the day I held aloft my sword and said, "_For the honor of GreySkull_!"

(random tidbit: Alan Oppenheimer, the guy who used to do the voice of Skeletor, ended up doing the voice of Alistair Crane on that cheesy soap opera, _Passions_. That show would be so much cooler if only Alistair would do the Skeletor laugh)

-BoomChish


	12. CH12: Gamble Rumble

At this point in time, I must apologize profusely for the long time in which it took me to update. There were many things which kept me from working on it, one being my writer's block: not being able to find a suitable way for Miyoko to defeat Sakai without making her appear too powerful, or, in fact, a way to end the chapter. Another being work-related: tons of my coworkers went on vacation, leaving me to fill in for them, giving me almost no time to myself; and the other being that I had to get my things organized for university. Yes, I'm starting university in the fall, and I'm quite excited. BUT, now that I've got everything under control, I've gone back to add more. Thank you very much for being so patient with me.

To GT4SilverShadow: When I read your review, I sent you an e-mail with my response, but I don't know if you received it yet, so… here it is:

I greatly appreciate that you decided to ask my permission first before using any references from my story in your own work, but even if you didn't ask me and used it anyway, as long as you credited my work as mine, I wouldn't have minded.

As for the collaboration/crossover thing, I'm sorely tempted, but I'd like to finish this story first before moving on to any other ventures. As you may see from my other posted works, I don't tend to finish stories that I begin, and for once, I'd like to break that tradition and finally get something completed. And what better way to begin than with this story? I already have the ending mapped out, it's just a matter of _getting_ to the ending which is delaying me.

In any case, enough with the rambling. Here's Chapter Twelve!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Twelve

Gamble Rumble

Miyoko just looked at me funny, then inclined her head. "So… you mean I _should_ modify the internals of my car to make it go faster? I mean, the Evo's fast enough as is… and I'm sure if I work around it, I can still beat Sakai somehow…"

"You can't bank your victory on luck, Miyoko. That won't work in this case. Especially not against Todo Racing School."

"Well…" She hesitated, then looked at me earnestly. "But I mean… you've told us how we shouldn't underestimate drivers like Fujiwara, right? 'Cause he's got a lot of skill behind his clueless demeanor, right?" When I nodded, she continued, "But I'd rather win by skill, and not because my car is good. I mean, if my skill is shoddy and yet I still win against Sakai, won't people say that I only won because of my car? I wouldn't want that; I want to win because my skill got me the victory, not my car."

I let out a huge sigh. "Miyoko, in an uphill battle, skill is no longer the main issue here. Your car also plays an important factor in winning the race. There's a reason why Fujiwara will only race on the downhill; and that's because his Hachi-Roku could _never_ outrun a 4WD car like a Skyline GT-R for instance… or even an Evo, on the uphill. His Hachi-Roku is just too underpowered on the uphill. Now, as for your stock Evo versus Sakai's tuned Integra, there are a few differences, but…"

Miyoko wasn't listening anymore. She appeared to be quite fascinated by the scenery outside. I said her name a few times to draw her attention, but my efforts were in vain. That is, until she finally turned towards me and said, quite simply, "I want to drive."

"What?" I was dumbfounded.

"I want to drive on the uphill. Let me drive," she spoke, quietly and firmly.

"You mean now?" We were almost at the foot of Enna Pass, as it turned out.

"Yes, now. Unless your car is too precious for me to sit behind the wheel?" she taunted.

I was stunned, but I quickly gathered my wits. "Uh… o…kay?" I pulled over to the side and we switched positions. Miyoko had a strange determined look on her face as she slowly set her foot down on the gas and fluidly shifted gears at the appropriate moment. I'd never seen that look before on her face, and to be honest, it really frightened me.

Especially when she started to attack the corners with mindless ease and didn't even bat an eye when she miscalculated her drift into a particularly sharp hairpin and nearly resulted in my car's rear end bumping against the concrete wall. She barely missed it, but she was way too close for comfort.

When she pulled off a second miscalculated drift into another corner, I really let her have it. "Will you watch what you're doing?! For the love of God, I can plainly see that you're set on beating Sakai with your raw skill, but don't go and destroy my car in the process! Especially not with me in it! I can't afford another life, let alone another car!" I roared at her. Which, in essence, was right; I definitely didn't have any money to throw away like that. Especially since Mitsubishi Motors was more preoccupied with releasing the later model Evos; it'd be a bit of a coil finding another Evo IV that would be similar, if not identical, to the one I currently owned. For a split second, I'd forgotten that Miyoko certainly had enough money to replace my car if she did total it, but that was besides the point; I _didn't_ want her to destroy it with reckless driving.

I was so preoccupied with reprimanding her on how careless her drifts were that I hadn't even noticed that we were already at the top of Enna Pass. I was even less concerned with the fact that we'd reached the top because she abruptly forced my car into a sharp U-turn, resulting in a loud screeching of tires - _my_ tires - as she wheeled the car around and headed on the downhill.

I knew she wouldn't be racing on the downhill, but either way, she was definitely going to get it as soon as we reached the bottom of the mountain pass. If I could even survive that long without Miyoko making one excessively big miscalculation, resulting in a nice crunched-up Evo against a concrete wall. With the both of us in it.

She finally slowed down as we reached the bottom of the mountain pass. Miyoko glanced at me once, then sighed and killed the engine before she said, "Go ahead, say it."

I let go; "Are you insane? The way you were driving back there, you could've killed us both! Of all the things I'd expected, the _last_ thing I'd expected you to be was reckless! You're better than that, and we both know it!"

Miyoko didn't say a word, she merely shrugged and tapped her fingers on my steering wheel. I went on; "And you nearly wrecked my car in the process! Do you know how hard it would be for me to find another Evo IV almost identical to this one? Much less the repairs I'd have to pay for if this ever got totaled?"

Instead of directly answering my question, she started to drive off again, this time in the direction of home. I calmed down enough to say, "_Now_ where are you going?"

"Home. I've learned all I need to know," she answered simply.

_All she needed to know?_ "That's ridiculous. I didn't teach you _anything_ today."

"You taught me more than you realize, Seiji. It's enough," she replied, then fell silent for the rest of the drive home.

---

I had no idea what she meant by that comment, but either way, she carefully dodged any questions heading in that direction all throughout the week. And before I knew it, Saturday had arrived and with it, the race between Miyoko and Sakai came too soon.

I decided to wait at the top of the mountain pass along with Jin. Alex said that he, the Night Kids and the ladies of Impact Blue would evenly disperse themselves among the route. Jin seemed surprised when I'd told him what had happened between myself and Miyoko that night when we went for a drive.

"So she drove up Enna like a crazy nut, nearly killing you and your car, but still managed to get a crazy fast time, then she said that she'd learned all that she needed to know for the race?"

I nodded solemnly.

"Weird. I know her personality varies from time to time, but that's very weird even for her."

There was a crackling sound from my radio. I grabbed it and answered it, to hear Alex say, "The race has begun. Sakai's in the lead with Miyoko in behind. Does the chaser theory still work on the uphill?"

I hesitated. "I suppose so. Although they're not just fighting each other to reach the top, they're also fighting the pull of gravity."

"Gravity? Oh, right… since they're going up and gravity forces things down, they're also fighting that. Makes sense… Anyhow… you think she's got a chance of winning?"

I let out a noise. "I don't know… The only modification I saw her do was change her brake fluid. Other than that, who knows?"

It was Alex's turn to let out a commiserating noise. "You're not making me feel any more confident, Seiji. You know I'm worried about this. It was pure luck that got me my victory against Daiki, but I don't know if Miyoko will be that lucky."

"No need to remind _me_," I answered sourly. And with that, I ended the communication with Alex. Jin seemed to notice my discomfort and patted me affectionately on my back. "Hey, don't stress too much, aniki. Wasn't it you who once said that it didn't matter if we won or lost at this stage of the game, since we're pretty new to the scene? That we could recoup our losses and cover them up with victories in the future if ever we were faced with a loss?"

I nodded. "But the anticipation of knowing the outcome is always there, regardless of whether you're expecting a win or not. And that's what's getting to me, right now… the prospect of who might win."

"Well, well… So it's the little princess who you've set loose on the scene now, is it, Seiji?" came a familiar jeering voice. I merely gritted my teeth and turned to face Kyouichi, who had obviously showed up for the race, as usual, surrounded by the whole Emperor crew. Considering his past with Todo Racing School, it didn't surprise me to see him there.

"He didn't _send_ Miyoko out, she was _challenged_ by Todo Racing School," Jin retorted angrily when he saw who it was. Kyouichi merely made a clicking noise with his mouth and shook his head disapprovingly at my brother.

"I don't recall asking _you_ for your opinion. But in any case," he turned to face me again, "is this yet another attempt at your proof that you can achieve something on your own without any real expertise? Or did Ninomiya's race against your American friend merely get you into bigger trouble than you'd expected?"

I gave him a cold stare and bit the inside of my mouth to prevent myself from saying some scathing remark that I'd regret in the future, but all I said was, "I'm here because Miyoko was challenged to a race by Sakai of Todo Racing School. I'm here to support her, and that's all."

Kyouichi eyed me suspiciously, but didn't say anything. I could tell that Jin was seething next to me, but I gently patted his shoulder, then squeezed it to let him know that it wasn't the time or the place to get into an argument with Kyouichi Sudou.

Especially not when I suddenly felt a funny drop of water land squarely on my nose, followed by a few more droplets. Jin's angry look quickly subsided to worry. "Aniki, it's starting to rain! You think Miyoko will be fine in this condition?" he demanded as the skies opened up and rain started to fall on us.

I made a face. "Her Evo VII is 4WD, while Sakai's Integra is FF. As long as she knows how to control her car, she should be fine," I answered tartly.

"Assuming she doesn't drive the same way I heard she did a few days ago when you two went for a drive on Enna," Kyouichi cut in nastily. "If she were to drive like _that_ in the rain, she'll smash her car up for sure." I rounded on him and saw that his face had taken on a look of malice.

"Where did you hear _that_?" I demanded.

He shrugged. "I hear lots of things, Seiji. Like about how Miyoko's temper nearly forced you to quit as their leader, then it was her feeble whimpering and crying which encouraged you to stay. Never for a second did I think that you were one of _those_ types of men."

"And what exactly do you mean by _that_?" I raged, my temper flaring. Gossip about how my team performed on the road was one thing, gossip about our internal conflicts _off_ the road was in another league entirely. I clenched my hands into fists and I was more than ready to punch his block off if he said anything else to smear my team's name.

Until I heard someone from across the road shout out, "Here they come! And… _oh my god, what is she doing in the lead?_"

My face immediately registered shock as Jin and I turned around… in time to see Miyoko zip past the finish line with Sakai right on her tail. I chanced a look back at Kyouichi, and he was surprised as well.

Like last time, Miyoko wheeled her car around into a sharp U-turn, causing her tires to squeal, then she pulled over to the side, killed the engine of her car and stepped out into the downpour and made her way to us. Sakai pulled over behind her, got out and came to join us as well. He wasn't smiling, but neither did he look condescending either.

Jin was first to speak. "I don't believe it, Miyo… How'd you do it?"

"We-ell… Seiji, remember when you told me that my reckless driving was capable enough of killing us both?" she asked innocently.

"Something of that sort. Why?"

"Well… I didn't quite kill myself, but I did manage to do _that_ to my car," she answered as she gestured to a rather sizeable scrape on the left side of her back bumper. Both Jin and I stared at it in shock and confusion before I managed to blurt out, "What happened? How'd you get that?"

"Seems to me like Ieyasu-chan's been studying the tactics that Fujiwara has been using," Sakai commented as he wrinkled his nose. "She turned off her headlights at one point, so I couldn't see her behind me. Also add in the fact that it's dark outside _and_ raining _and_ her car color, it was almost impossible to see her in my rearview mirror, so at some intervals, it was as if she wasn't even there."

"Amazing…" Jin murmured in awe.

"That still doesn't explain the scratch in her car," I cut in, a bit harshly.

Sakai didn't seem to mind. "Yes, _that_… Well, at one particularly sharp hairpin, the last one before the final stretch, I suppose I braked a bit too soon - considering my car's drivetrain, I have to go a bit slower in the turns while in the rain, lest I want to spin out upon exiting. Ieyasu-chan used that opportunity to sneak past me on the inside and drift into the corner, taking up most of the space, so I had to ease up some, unless I wanted her to crash into me, or vice versa. Upon exiting, her car slid out a bit too much, and - as you can see - she grazed the outer wall. Unfortunately for me, that contact didn't faze her one bit, and she simply took off."

Kyouichi narrowed his eyes at Miyoko, who didn't even acknowledge his presence until he spoke, his voice low; "If you keep trying to imitate Fujiwara, you'll end up six feet underground sooner than you think, Ieyasu-chan," he spoke, causing her to glare at him, the venom behind her green eyes blindingly visible. Even Sakai ended up watching Kyouichi warily, not sure of which stance to take.

There was a deadly silence until he shrugged and turned away disdainfully. "Well whatever. Do what you want. Just that…" here, he turned to face me and his gaze was cold, yet mocking, "We'll be waiting for you. Whenever you're ready, we're there." And with that, he and the rest of Emperor left.

"If ever we're going after Emperor, I want to take a crack at that arrogant, good for nothing sonofabitch," Miyoko growled, her fists clenched. "I'll make him eat his words!"

"Okay, calm down," I spoke tersely. "I know you're angry right now…"

"Anger doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now!" she blasted, her fury now directed at me. I recoiled a bit, and Jin looked suitably cowed as well.

Interference came from an unlikely source, as Sakai patted her on the shoulder and said, "I understand that you're angry at what he said, but there's nothing you can do about it now. Just take pride in the fact that you won tonight, and save your anger for later."

She wheeled on him. "You stay out of this!" she snapped. He stepped back, shocked at her answer. I stepped forward to intervene, holding my hands up in defense and apology.

"Ehe… it's okay, Sakai… When she gets like this, it's best _not_ to try and make her change her mind." To Miyoko, I said, "Tell you what, Miyoko… why don't we all go out to some place to eat? To celebrate your victory? My treat."

"You sure you can afford it?" Jin mocked as Alex and the Night Kids finally arrived, joining us in time to hear my idea.

I pulled out my wallet and inspected the contents, wincing when I saw the amount of money, or apparent lack thereof, in it. I let out a sigh. "Eh… I'll just charge it to my credit card. Well… What do you say?" I asked hopefully, watching her expression.

It gradually subsided. "Oh… all right. But by God, does that man ever infuriate me!"

I let out another sigh. "I know Miyoko… I know all too well…"

---

Okay… now before anyone says anything, I have not read any of the mangas, nor have I seen anything of the anime beyond the AE86 vs NA6C race, so I'm not too aware of how Sakai's character should be. So if he's OOC, then don't hesitate to correct me. I'd like to be as accurate as possible.

Yes, the way Miyoko defeated Sakai sounds a bit too much like I mashed the AE86 vs Spoon EK9 race and the FD3S vs BNR32 race together, but as I previously mentioned, I haven't seen the FD3S vs DC2 match, so I'm not entirely sure of Sakai's weaknesses on the road. I decided to use Miyoko's reckless driving as a means for her to achieve her victory, half testing out what she'd heard Takumi do, half trying too hard to win legitimately. She won in the end, but it was the rain, coupled with her drivetrain advantage and her reckless driving which made her win. As Sakai said in this chapter, if he hadn't eased up just a bit, Miyoko's drift would've been enough to smack into him and both of them would have lost control and gotten into a huge accident. More luck on Evo Prime's part, huh?

Kyouichi does really seem like one heck of a mean guy at this point, but he'll get his comeuppance much later on… in a way you'll all be shocked to see.

Now hopefully I'll keep myself on track and get this finished!

-BoomChish


	13. CH13: Dance Around The World

School's about to start in two weeks, so I've got a week to wrap this up before I get smothered by the university crap. That's gonna be fun… I think?

I'd recently bought a Tamiya Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII WRC model kit and tried assembling it (with the intention of making it look like Miyoko's Evo VII) **but** I had to be my typical impatient self and I broke two small (but important) parts of the rear suspension. I could probably glue it all back together, but… Oh well… I'll see what I can do.

Here's Chapter Thirteen, ready for your reading pleasure.

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Thirteen

Dance Around The World

We managed to find a small restaurant that was open twenty-four hours a day, so we all piled in and the current host/waiter led us to a table large enough to accommodate all who came with us. (To be more specific: Miyoko, Jin, Alex, myself, Takeshi, Shingo, Mako, Sayuki, and even Daiki and Sakai. I'd invited the both of them as well as a gesture of goodwill, and they seemed very good-natured about my generosity)

While waiting for our orders to arrive, we began to chitchat among each other and gradually, several questions pertaining to how our group surfaced among the conversation.

"We'd heard the rumors about how you'd gotten kicked out of Emperor, but we'd never imagined for a second that Kyouichi would actually go so far as to kick _you_ out first. You'd think that he'd kick out some lower-ranked members first," Sayuki pointed out, as she pointed a finger at me.

Daiki made a face. "If what I've heard about Sudou was right, then I for one wouldn't be surprised at all. I heard that Sudou was very skilled while he was in our school, but he was also very determined and had a very strong sense of pride."

"From what I understood, you had a losing streak of four losses after all your wins, right?" Sakai asked me, furrowing his brow. "And these losses were pretty significant, weren't they?" I nodded and he scowled. "Then it's no wonder Sudou took out his frustration on you. To him, each loss was as if he'd lost himself. And with someone with a strong sense of pride as himself, he couldn't take it in good stride, so he had to make someone pay."

"Well, in all fairness, that last loss wasn't really that important, but it was the final straw in Kyouichi's eyes. I mean, my first loss came from Fujiwara - and I don't think anyone's going to defeat _that_ boy legitimately anytime soon, and he's defeated two of the three other people I've also lost against."

Takeshi nodded in understanding. "Takahashi Keisuke was one of them, I'll bet."

My face told him all he needed to know. He sniffed at that. "I came close to beating him on Myougi, but it started to rain… and he drove recklessly behind me. Not quite like Miyoko did - from what I'd heard, you were pretty reckless tonight - but he'd defeated me by a fraction of a meter."

"Well, back then, Takahashi wasn't as skilled as he is today. He's had close to two years of seasoning to get where he is now. Furthermore, you must've raced him before Seiji did, right?" Sakai pointed out.

"Yeah, he did. And obviously his skill kept improving, so when it came time for Keisuke to take on Seiji and subsequently you, he won," Shingo replied before Takeshi could say a word.

Sayuki looked at all my team members, and her gaze finally settled on Jin. "So out of the three Evo VII drivers, you're the only one who hasn't been challenged to race anybody so far, I take it?"

He smiled his devastating smile. "Not as of yet, but am I to take it that you'll be one of those who wish to take me on? Because I'd be more than willing."

She was quick on the dismissal. "I don't know if you'd be ready to take us on, Iwaki. We're not as easy as we look, you know. In the road racing scene, we _own_ Usui."

"I would imagine… But have you two really raced anywhere else other than Usui pass?" Daiki queried, cocking his head slightly to one side. Both Mako and Sayuki stared at him.

"Well… no…" Mako began hesitantly.

He shook his head. "I've no doubt that you're almost indestructible on Usui, but what about elsewhere? Part of attaining your epitome of skill is adaptation, the capacity to adapt your skills to your surroundings. If your surroundings never change, well, neither will your skill level."

"I would think that every single race has different characteristics, which account for different outcomes," Miyoko cut in matter-of-factly. "Take me for example. I've only really practiced driving on Happo, save for that one crazy bout on Enna using Seiji's car. Yet, how could someone like myself, having no real previous skills or victories noted, muster enough… _something_… to best," here, she made a gesture towards Sakai, "one of the best that Todo Racing School has to offer? Or Alex, for another example. We're about at the same skill level, yet he also emerged victorious against you, another prized student at Todo," she emphasized, gesturing towards the aforementioned people.

"Luck," I murmured, causing everyone to stare at me. "Nothing but sheer luck. In other circumstances, both of you would've been decimated without a second glance. Yet you persevered."

"If luck is the factor in which some lower-skilled players can defeat the higher-skilled folk, then one would have to argue that Fujiwara has an inordinate amount of it. More than any of us are likely to see in our lifetimes," Shingo declared, with a small hint of spite behind his words.

"I agree with you, but only partially," I spoke, my face creasing into a frown. "Yes, Fujiwara does seem to possess a high bout of luck at certain moments, but there's something else about him that's giving him his victories… a specific brand of skill that I don't think any other road racer possesses. No doubt all of us here - save for Alex, Jin and Miyoko, of course - have seen the boy in action and can attest that he's quite remarkable."

"That's high praise, even coming from you, Seiji," Takeshi commented before he let out a sigh, "But I agree with that wholeheartedly. Seeing his races not just against Shingo and myself, but against both Takahashis and other racers - you included - makes you realize that there is more to being a true god of the mountain passes than just car knowledge and decent skill."

"The way you all talk about this Fujiwara kid makes me want to see for myself. But if I'm not mistaken, he drives a - what was it again? A Hachi-Roku? What the hell _is _a Hachi-Roku anyway?" Alex queried, causing everyone to look at him in confusion and shock.

"A Hachi-Roku is a Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86, hence the _hachi-roku_ part. If I recall correctly, Fujiwara had overhauled his old engine after it blew up during a race against Kyouichi Sudou on Mt. Akagi," here, she looked to me for confirmation. When I nodded, she continued, "Supposedly, it's now a Group-A engine, a TRD AE101." She scratched her chin. "Wonder how he got his hands on it though… that's a racer class engine…"

All of us stared at her in stunned silence for a long moment. Jin finally broke it, when he said, "Miyo, where the hell did you learn all of _that_?"

She looked at him innocently, then as her face hardened just a bit, she said, "I have my sources."

"Whoever they are, they're remarkably well-informed about the specs of Fujiwara's car. Must be a friend of his, I'll bet," Sakai commented.

I watched Miyoko intently as she merely shrugged and refused to divulge any more information about her friend. No matter, I vowed that I would find out eventually who he or she was. At that moment, the food arrived and the conversation was cut short for some time while we began to devour our meal.

During a brief intercession of all the consumption, Jin suddenly looked at me with a look on confusion and concern intertwined with one another. "Aniki… about what Sudou said before… do you think he's really thinking about challenging us? Or is he going to wait for us to come after him?"

"Jin, I can't be too sure right now on Kyouichi's intentions, okay? But for the meantime, don't let it worry you. Kyouichi won't bother you unless you go around asking for it. Well, not literally, but you know what I mean. If you stay out of his way, chances are, he will too."

"But why does he keep appearing at our practices and our races? Not all, I concede, but the most significant ones, at least. If he's not going to bother us if we don't bother him, like you said, then…"

"He's there to bother me," I answered simply. "One must guess that he's not satisfied with having me expelled from Emperor, even more so that I've gone and formed my own team due to that. It's to pressure me into bringing myself even lower than I'd been after I'd been expelled, that's all."

"He's not a very nice person, if he does that," Sayuki muttered darkly.

"No, he's not. But given the circumstances, I understand it. After all, I used to be his number one lackey; his bitch, if you forgive my language. Because of certain occurrences, he's had to get rid of me. Now who does he have to take my place, to provide him with the undivided loyalty and deference that I used to bestow upon hm?" I replied theoretically. "But because I have my own team and I'm independent of his influence, he feels that he just has to interfere somehow."

Alex made a face and waved his hands. "Dude, you're bringing up one _really_ disturbing image right about now!"

I snorted and tried to reach across Jin to swat Alex with my left hand, but he dodged it fairly quickly. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Stanford! You know what I mean."

The group broke out into laughter, despite it all. Even before I could stop myself, I was laughing too. Besides, it was nice being able to be here at this moment with everyone, forgetting all my problems and just having a good time in general. Didn't have too many of those while with Emperor.

Miyoko was the one who broke through the good mood by saying, "Hey Seiji… out of curiosity… who was the fourth guy you raced, which got Sudou so mad that he kicked you out? Like, I know the first was Fujiwara… And the next two were Takahashi Keisuke, then that guy from Irohazaka in the MR2… Kogashiwa Kai… But who was the fourth?"

I furrowed my brow. "Some no-name guy who drove a Nissan Silvia S14 K Aero. I don't even know who he was. He just showed up, challenged us, I got chosen to race against him, got my ass handed to me, then I got kicked out of Emperor. Just like that."

"I see…" She then went back to eating her food in silence. The others started to bombard me with questions about the mysterious racer, particularly Daiki and Sakai, who felt they were sure that they may have seen him before. But Miyoko remained fairly mum the whole time.

I wonder why, though…

The following day, as Alex took Sparky for his daily walk and Jin was in the midst of taking a shower, I decided to ask Miyoko about her apparent 'sources', even if she was reluctant to reveal that information to me. I was about to knock on her door when I realized it was wide open. I took a hesitant step onto the threshold of her room and saw that she was seated at her computer, her fingers flying across her keyboard. Considering how she'd pause every so often before there would be a furious clacking of the keys, I assumed that she was talking to someone using an Instant Messaging service. Who, I had no clue, but I intended to find out.

I slowly walked up behind her and carefully peered over her shoulder, so as not to alert her to my presence. All I saw was a small MSN conversation window with the name "Kenji" written across the top left corner. I decided it was time to announce my presence.

"Who's Kenji?" I asked calmly.

I had the pleasure of seeing Miyoko let out a shriek of outrage as she quickly minimized the window and wheeled around in her chair, her face a mask of anger. "Don't you know it's impolite to walk into someone else's room without knocking first?!" she shrilled.

I shrugged. "Well, you left your door wide open… so I figured it was free game for anyone. Besides, who's Kenji?"

She made a face, but she responded, albeit a bit stiffly, "Kenji's one of my cousins from my mother's side. Even after my mother and I fell out of touch, I still contact him from time to time, as he contacts me every so often. He lives in the Gunma prefecture. He's also a road racer, although not anywhere near as skilled as you are."

My eyebrows shot up at that. "A road racer, eh? From Gunma? Is he a part of any team?"

"Yes, he is. He's a member of a team from Mt. Akina…" here, she hesitated a bit, "um… the Akina… Strike Stars? No, that's not it… Swift Stars? Oh hell, I'll ask him." And with that, her fingers sailed across her keyboard again. She then waited for his response before she said triumphantly, "_Speed_ Stars! Yes, that was it! The Akina Speed Stars. Ever heard of them, Seiji?"

Heard of them? Now a lot of things were making sense. "No wonder you know so much about Fujiwara and Project D," I mused with a slight smile on my face. "Fujiwara's best friend is a member of the Akina Speed Stars. So I suppose your cousin Kenji has been feeding you information about Fujiwara's exploits?"

"And if he has?" Miyoko's eyes glittered dangerously.

"Nothing wrong with that, Miyoko. I'm just wondering how come you didn't tell this to us before. Furthermore, how come you've never invited him and his team to come watch our practices or our races?"

She shrugged. "Never crossed my mind. But I'll do that the next time we have a practice or a challenge issued to us." She then paused and scratched her head absentmindedly. "I asked him about the guy in the S14 K, and he says he's never heard of anyone like that. Funny though; I mentioned all the other racers we've dealt with, even most of your previous opponents in Emperor, and he's fairly knowledgeable about them. Of course, seeing as he's friends with Fujiwara as well, it's natural that he'd be extremely well-versed in the goings-on of Project D's escapades."

"Out of curiosity, when did you start asking him about information pertaining to Fujiwara?" I queried, watching her expression. It never changed, not even when she spoke.

"To be fair, he was the one who began giving me information about Fujiwara. I never asked him for it until afterwards, when Evo Prime was solidly established. It began when Jin told me that he'd be offering the spare guestroom to you, and when I'd told that much to Kenji, he mentioned that he'd met you before. Then he started rambling on about your match against Fujiwara, then about your other match against Kogashiwa Kai, finally ending with the then-recent news that you'd been kicked out of Emperor."

"I see… Well…" here, I shrugged again and shoved my hands into my pockets. "I just wanted to know who your source was. For a split second, I'd thought that you'd hired a private investigator to go stalk Fujiwara and learn all about his races and his car specs."

Miyoko gave me her patented _you're a dumbass, did you know that?_ look. "For me to do that, I'd have to have hired the investigator something like a year ago, no? Especially since that's when most of the significant races involving Project D and Fujiwara actually occurred. And a year ago, I didn't even know that there was some kid called Fujiwara Takumi who was a god of the mountain passes."

She had me there. "Point taken." I then chuckled lightly. "But I meant it about inviting your cousin - and his whole team - to come watch us someday. You can assure them that I'm nothing like I was back in Emperor."

"Oh, they know," she answered robustly. "I just never got around to inviting them. But since you insist…" She turned back to face her screen and she started to type again. She then paused and turned to face me, a broad smile on her face. "Kenji says he'd love to, and that he'll tell the other Speed Stars. He just says that I should tell him whenever our next race will be."

"That would be whenever someone decides to challenge one of us," I replied.

"And that will be…?"

"The hell if I know…"

* * *

Yes, this chapter is race-free. It's mostly reflecting on character development and establishing facts on where everyone currently stands. But it's setting itself up for the next races up and until the final showdown. So don't you fret, it'll just get better and better.

And oh my goodness, what in the world is _Kenji_ doing here? Yes, like Seiji, I always felt that Kenji could use a lot more character development. Or, failing that, at least give the poor man a _background_, instead of having him just being Iketani's friend and fellow teammate who pops up every so often at the gas station. (we don't even know his family name, for crying out loud!) Considering those meager facts, I decided to toy with it, giving him some sort of a relation between himself and the opulent member of Evo Prime. For obvious reasons, it wouldn't make sense to make Kenji related to either Seiji or Jin, and considering Alex's background, _they_ can't be related, so the only remaining candidate would be Miyoko. And instead of linking the two via Miyoko's father's side, I decided to have him related to her through her mother, who, if you recall, is divorced from her father. I did it this way, because if Kenji was related to Miyoko through the Ieyasu line, then that would mean that he's also an extremely rich little rascal, like her. Though that _would_ explain how come Kenji doesn't appear to have a job, _or_ any other responsibilities aside from hanging around Yuichi's gas station, in addition to properly maintaining a 180SX.

Yes, the Speed Stars will soon make their first appearance in this fic. Does that mean that our famous tofu boy will join them? (silence) Well, you'll just have to wait and see, no?

-BoomChish


	14. CH14: Speedy Speed Boy

It was my general manager's birthday on Monday, which is actually when I'd finished this chapter, but I decided to wait until the next chapter was also finished, so that I could fire two chapters off at the same time. Happy (Belated) Birthday Kelcey! May you have many more!

… and may you never find that big pile of rotten doughnuts (and other random things) I left in your backyard! (whistles innocently)

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Fourteen

Speedy Speed Boy

It came sooner than I'd expected, if you're curious. It was impromptu and caught us all by surprise during one of our practices. It was issued out to the whole Evo Prime team, and was issued out by none other than…

That guy in the S14 K who'd defeated me on Irohazaka all those months ago while I was still an Emperor. (What? You were maybe expecting Kyouichi and Emperor? Or Project D? Give me a break!) He'd showed up unexpectedly and announced to us at large that he wanted to test out our skills as a new team in the area. Naturally, Jin had opted for this challenge, but for two reasons; the first being that he wanted to prove his skill, as Alex and Miyoko had done, and the second was that he'd wanted to avenge me for the humiliation I'd endured at the hands of Hirotsugu Okuma. (That, apparently, was his name)

Of course he'd remembered me, and he seemed very sure of his skills, though he showed a bit more deference to my dear brother than to me, mostly because they were actually friends from school, though I did not learn this until later.

"So after you'd left Emperor, you'd gone and formed your own team, I see? Well, I suppose your brother will be more of a challenge than _you_ were, but all the same… we'll see," he'd said nonchalantly before Jin had yelled at him to get ready for the race and to stop bothering me. When the signal was given and both drivers sped off the starting line, Miyoko had shook her head. "He's all talk and little substance. I've no doubt that Jin could decimate him."

"He decimated _me_ on what used to be my home course of Irohazaka, so I wouldn't be so sure," I answered sourly.

Miyoko regarded me with interest. "You have little faith in us all," she murmured, not even phrasing it as a question, but as a statement. I narrowed my eyes at her, but said nothing. I knew that we'd been lucky the past two races against Todo Racing School, but I doubted that our luck would run any longer. It would only be a matter of time before we'd lost.

Interestingly enough, Miyoko had been true to her word and she'd invited her cousin Kenji to join us this particular practice. He'd even brought a teammate with him, who invariably turned out to be the loudmouthed friend of Fujiwara, the one who drove the Toyota AE85 Levin SR, somewhat similar in appearance to Fujiwara's Hachi-Roku, but lacking a _lot_ of the internal potential. He'd introduced himself as Itsuki Takeuchi, though he didn't seem all that friendly with me, which was understandable, considering how I'd treated him the first time I'd met him. Kenji also explained that he'd invited the Speed Stars' team leader and his best friend, someone he called Iketani Kouichirou, but he'd opted not to make an appearance due to personal reasons. When I'd asked both Kenji and Itsuki about it, they'd cast a sideways glance towards Miyoko, who in turn cast me a glacial stare, so I dropped the subject.

More light was shed on the subject a few seconds later when Sayuki (who'd made an appearance with Mako) had sauntered up to the Speed Stars pair and addressed Kenji rather flippantly: "So where's your team leader? How come he didn't show up tonight?" Without even waiting for Kenji's response (which probably wouldn't have come anyway, since he looked quite startled by her presence, as did Itsuki), she added, "Or is it that he hasn't quite gotten over what happened two years ago?"

"Sayuki-chan," Miyoko interceded somewhat calmly, "now is not the time, nor the place."

"But I don't understand… _What_ happened two years ago?" Alex demanded, quite interested. I nodded in agreement with him, though I said nothing.

"_Nothing_ happened two years ago which has any coherence to the events happening tonight," Miyoko cut in sharply, her green eyes piercing everyone as she looked around at all of us. "Now _drop it_."

By now, I was more than familiar with that tone of voice; she used it quite often whenever she was approaching her boiling point. And as much as I was burning with curiosity inside, especially seeing as Mako had appeared behind Sayuki and seemed somewhat distressed at the topic of conversation, I knew better than to push Miyoko past the limits of her temper. Sayuki cast one spiteful look at Kenji, then at Miyoko, before she simply strolled away with Mako at her heels. When they were out of earshot (and out of view, as it happens), Kenji let out a sigh of relief and smiled gratefully at Miyoko. "Thanks. I didn't think I could handle it if she'd kept pressuring me to give a reasonable explanation of why Iketani didn't want to show up tonight."

She shrugged indifferently. "That's what family members do; they look out for each other. Although maybe you should persuade Iketani-kun to get over it, hmm? Two years _is_ kind of long to brood over something as inconsequential as that."

"True, but hey, you'd have to know him better to understand why," he countered.

"I suppose that's true…" she answered, nodding in agreement.

"Too long to brood over _what?_" I demanded, somewhat impatiently. Whatever it was, it involved the Speed Stars leader, and Impact Blue in some way, considering the way Sayuki was quick to fence Kenji in like that. I didn't get my answer though, because Miyoko shot me her deadliest stare yet and raised one fist to let me show that I was either to drop the subject or have her fist come smashing into my body somewhere. Whether it be my face, my gut or down where the sun don't shine, I had no clue, but I wasn't about to test that out.

Alex, on the other hand, decided to change the subject. He looked over at Itsuki with curious eyes. "So… you're the best friend of the legendary Fujiwara Takumi, are you not?"

He perked up. "Yeah, he and I have been best friends for a long time, certainly before either of us began road racing. I knew so much more than he did when I first became interested, that I was so sure that I'd definitely be in a league far above him. But I had no idea that he'd been practicing nearly five years before, when he was still thirteen years old."

That caught my attention. "Since he was _thirteen_?" I choked out as my blood ran cold. _No wonder he's such a monster on the road._ "I had no idea that he had _that_ much practice under his belt… It's no wonder I lost against him…"

"Oh, I know. I doubt anyone expected him to be that skilled, Iwaki-san. But Takumi's dad, Bunta… he's a strange one… He made Takumi deliver tofu to the Akina lake resort every day for those five years between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Takumi still had to deliver the tofu every night when he began road racing, but on some nights, Bunta would relieve him of his duties."

"Delivering _tofu_?" Alex queried somewhat in surprise.

"Fujiwara Tofu Shop…" I murmured, remembering the sticker that graced the driver's side door of Fujiwara's Hachi-Roku. "I see… what time did he make these deliveries?"

"Early in the morning… something like four AM, if I recall correctly," Kenji explained.

My eyebrows shot up. "No wonder he's never been caught driving without a license when he was underage. Almost no one goes either way on Mt. Akina - or most other mountain passes for that matter - at that ungodly hour. Well, I know _I _wouldn't," I added lamely.

"Given the work I do, I wouldn't," Miyoko chimed in.

I had other questions though. First, I addressed Miyoko, "You said before that Fujiwara had had installed in his Hachi-Roku a TRD AE101, which is a Group-A racing engine." When she nodded, I turned to face both Kenji and Itsuki. "It that's indeed a racing engine, then how did Fujiwara get his hands on it? Assuming neither of the Takahashis were involved."

"No, I remember seeing that engine not long after he'd had it installed. Turns out Takumi's father had gotten it somewhere, and then got it installed after the old one blew out. While he had the engine installed, the tachometer hadn't been changed, so Takumi took his car to Iketani and asked him to help him install a new tachometer."

Miyoko was now pensive. "So it was his father who got the engine… but his father's just the owner of a tofu shop…" She looked up at Itsuki and tilted her head to one side. Just then, my walkie-talkie went off. I grabbed it and spoke in it, just in time to hear someone shout, "Jin just passed the finish line and he's nearly fifty meters ahead of the S14! He did it!"

"Well, that's good to hear," I spoke happily, knowing deep down that the main driving force behind Jin's determination tonight was his desire to avenge my loss back on Irohazaka. That's my brother for you… anyone messes with me, and he'd jump in, his fists raised and ready to go down fighting. That's why I love him so much, even though I just wish he'd gain a little more finesse in flirting. His constant feeble attempts with flirting with the Impact Blue ladies just wasn't working too well… and he just looked darned ridiculous as well.

As Alex, Miyoko and I waited for Jin to show up with Hirotsugu, we were suddenly graced by Daiki's presence, late as it may be. He pulled up next to us, and got out, smiling broadly. "Seiji, you'll never guess what! I spoke to my friend Tomo about you guys and now he's eager to try out Evo Prime for size. He says it doesn't matter if you lose or win, it's all for fun. He says he'll be here next week. What do you say?"

My jaw dropped in surprise. So did everyone else's around me. Daiki's friend Tomoyuki Tachi was a genuine rally racer, and a former graduate of Todo Racing School. Fujiwara had gone against him once on Happo, and merely won because of a squirrel that ran across the road, distracting Tomo. If it hadn't been for that, the infamous Hachi-Roku would have tasted bitter defeat on Happogahara.

Even if Alex had been capable of defeating Daiki and Miyoko had been able to defeat Sakai, Tomo was nothing like either of them. _He _definitely had tons of skill on his side. None of us stood a ghost of a chance, even if we tried.

"Well…" I began hesitantly, "I don't know if they're skilled enough to…"

"I want to race him!" Miyoko cut in, her eyes shining.

"No, I want to race him!" Alex protested, his face screwing up in an odd pout.

I was jolted out of my hesitance as I stared at my non blood-related team members. They seemed to be fighting over something extremely silly, and they went about it like children too, bickering back and forth. "But I want to race him! I stand a better chance of winning!" Miyoko whined.

"The only reason why _you_ won against Sakai is because it rained and his Integra is horrible in it!"

"The only reason _you_ defeated Daiki was because of that guy who dropped his cell phone on the road!" she shot back. Daiki, Kenji and Itsuki looked like they was trying hard not to laugh at the whole scene, so I cut in between both of them and tried to put a cease to the squabbling.

"Stop it, both of you! You're both old enough not to fight like a bunch of little children! And furthermore, what's the point of all the bickering? You didn't even stop to think whether Jin or I might like to race him," I pointed out, my gaze stern.

"Race who?" Jin queried as he stepped up to us, followed closely by a subdued Hirotsugu. We all turned to face him, and he had a reserved look on his face. Seeing the look on my face as I looked at my little brother, he shrugged. "Passed him after a hairpin and he never caught up. So what's all this about a race, and whether I'd like to race him or not?"

It was Kenji who decided to speak. "Ninomiya here just told us that his friend Tomoyuki Tachi challenged your team to a race, even though it's just for fun. Alex and Miyo-chan were bickering over who would get to race him, and your brother interceded, telling them that they should also consider you."

Jin inclined his head slightly. "Well… when's the race?"

"Tomo said next week, here at Happo," Daiki explained.

He looked around hesitantly before he said, "No, no, that's all right. If Alex and or Miyo want to take him on, they can. But not me; I've got other things to do next week."

"Like what?" I queried, staring at my brother.

"Oh… nothing…" he spoke warily.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he chose not to say anything more. Miyoko and Alex merely looked over at him, then stared at me. Alex was the one who asked me a question: "So… Seiji… do you really want to race Tomo next week?"

"Eh?" The question caught me off guard, until I'd realized what he'd said and just shook my head. "I just said that, because your argument with Miyoko seemed awfully centralized between the both of you, when the challenge had been issued out to Evo Prime and not anyone specific. Besides, if I can't even beat Hirotsugu here when Jin could, I wouldn't stand even the slightest of chances against Tomoyuki… unless some _really_ strange circumstance occurred… like he dropped dead of a congenital heart failure seconds before our race or something equally impossible and ridiculous like that."

"Not much chance of _that_ happening," Daiki confirmed.

"As I thought. And, since Jin already said he'd rather not race… I guess it is really between just you two…" I answered somewhat subdued. Both Miyoko and Alex perked up, then faced each other. "Just keep it civil and clean!" I warned.

"What are you, their father?" Itsuki demanded, a bit sharply, then quickly apologized when both of them shot him a scathing glance. I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Sometimes I am, Takeuchi, sometimes I am. But I don't mind. I've gotten used to it. One of the perks I get as the leader of Evo Prime. Emperor wasn't really as out-there, when I think about it."

"I can see that…" he answered, somewhat cautiously.

"Okay, we'll settle this with Rock, Paper, Scissors!" Alex declared, ignoring everything else. Miyoko nodded vigorously, then they simply went off at it, cursing as they kept coming up with draws. Itsuki, in the meantime, looked over at Kenji and raised his eyebrows. "Your cousin Miyoko is weird."

"Well, considering her upbringing, I don't really blame her. Even though her mother, my aunt, never really kept in touch with her after the divorce, my mother still contacted her from time to time, and introduced me to her. Miyo-chan's never really had a normal childhood, so she sometimes has a tendency to slip and act rather childish, odd as it may be for a twenty-one year old."

"But her being the Ieyasu heir, no one's really going to chastise her for it," Itsuki countered, then cast me a sideways glance. "Except for Seiji, of course."

I shrugged. "Well, when you live with your teammates, Miyoko included, you tend to be privy to a lot of strange behaviours. And being the oldest, I may as well be the one to rein in their high spirits at the appropriate moments, because if not, things could just get extremely awkward."

"Such as?" Itsuki inquired. Before I could answer, we were cut off by an exclamation of joy, along with an extremely loud and unmitigated string of profanity in English. Miyoko was doing a little dance, chanting to herself, "Oh yeah, I wooon! I wooon!" while Alex looked rather disgruntled, muttering, "Stupid me… why'd I pick rock?"

"Such as that?" I answered hopefully, gesturing towards Miyoko and Alex. Itsuki and Kenji snickered, but did their best to contain themselves, especially when Alex glared at them with his piercing blue eyes. Kenji shook his head, while smiling broadly.

"Seriously… how do you deal with them?"

"Well… I just… do…" I answered haplessly, with a smile on my face.

* * *

Yes, this chapter is a bit short, even though there's a race in it. As you can probably guess, even though Hirotsugu was the little sneak that cost Seiji his position in Emperor, that's pretty much his vital role in this story. Hence why when Jin steps up to avenge his aniki, he succeeds with little effort.

As obvious as I thought it may be, I decided that if Kenji and Itsuki were to show their faces at an Evo Prime meeting/practice/race/whatever, I figured that Sayuki would probably bring them up to scratch on the whole Iketani and Mako conflict. Yes, it's been more than two years since they've 'broken things off' and while Mako did come to grips with herself during Extra Stage. I decided to play on the fact that, even though she's for the most part over the whole thing, there's still a shadow of the pain she felt when Iketani was a no-show. Especially since, in this instance, Iketani was, yet again, a no-show, and obviously because of her. Obviously, Miyoko being Kenji's cousin, she knows about the whole thing already, but naturally, Seiji and the rest are in the dark, so they're rather inquisitive about it.

And Jin seems to be acting a wee bit odd…

-BoomChish


	15. CH15: Love Is In Danger

And yes, here's the ever-so elusive and quite shocking… Chapter Fifteen!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Fifteen

Love Is In Danger

Jin was acting very strangely in the week that followed. At first, I'd dismissed it as simple worry over whatever it was he'd had planned for the Saturday when the rest of us would be at Happo for the race between Miyoko and Tomo. But then, I actually started to wonder what it _exactly was_ that he'd had planned.

I asked him about it the afternoon before, on Friday. The both of us had been sitting at the kitchen table, calmly eating the remainder of Alex's homemade banana bread. Just watching the way Jin was slowly picking at his slice instantly told me that he had something on his mind.

"So really… where are you going Saturday?" I asked, as patiently and calmly as possible.

"To see some old school friends, Aniki… why do you ask?" was his reply.

I would've let it drop at that, if it weren't for the fact that his expression was way too guarded for it to be a mere visit to see old friends. "You seem too bothered for it to be that…" I glanced at the doorway which led to the main foyer, then I looked back at my little brother. "You know, you can tell me. I won't tell the others, if that's what you want."

Jin shook his head. "It's not that, Aniki… It's just…" here, he paused and let out a sigh, although there was a long moment of silence before he spoke again, "these friends… they're… well… people who Miyoko and Alex don't get along too well with… I mean… they don't really like Alex because he's American, and they don't like Miyoko because she's rich and spoiled. And the feeling is mutual on their side too. Hiro is one of them too… I never knew that he'd become a road racer, or that he'd been the one who'd defeated you. When I joined Evo Prime, I promised that I wouldn't associate with them, but… these are friends I've known for a very long time… and I…"

"I understand…" I cut in soothingly. "If you want, you can go ahead and see them. I promise not to tell the others."

He smiled, but it was a weak smile. _He's still hiding something_. I decided not to press the matter further. He stood up and sighed again. "Thanks a lot, Aniki. I feel much better now."

I stood up as well and cuffed him on the shoulder and shook him playfully. "Hey, it's what big brothers are for, no?"

I knew Jin would tell me the truth. Eventually, if not now.

Looking back, the night of Miyoko's race against Tomo marked several major changes in my new life as the leader of a street racing team.

First off, Tomoyuki Tachi had arrived at Happo with a Honda Civic EK9 he borrowed from Todo Racing School. He'd done the same thing against Fujiwara a while back. When he'd arrived, he stepped up to me with a small smile on his face and said, "So, you must be Seiji Iwaki, the leader of Evo Prime." He bowed slightly, then said, "So whom will I be racing tonight?"

I gestured towards Miyoko, who had been standing off to the side, waiting patiently. She raised her head and stared at him boldly. "Tomoyuki Tachi," she spoke smoothly. "I've heard of you."

"And I've heard of you too, Ieyasu-chan. I am indeed surprised to learn that not only have you decided to become a road racer, but that you were skilled enough to defeat Sakai on our home course of Enna." He chuckled lightly. "I'd like to see what skills you indeed possess behind the wheel."

She nodded, a smile beginning to form on her face. "I won't let you down."

"Yeah… the way you seem to like letting _me_ down?" I teased.

Miyoko stuck out her tongue at me. "Well, _you're_ not a professional racer!"

"Naw, I'm too ugly to be one, my dear," I mocked, then I waved my hand at her in dismissal. "Whatever. Just quit stalling. I'm sure Tachi-san is eager to race. Aren't you?"

She merely made a face at me, then went to her car, prepped herself and the race was off. I sighed and looked over at Kenji, Itsuki and Iketani (who had decided to show up that day). "Before you say anything, it's a recurring joke among my teammates to mock my ugliness every so often."

"Heh… Well, we're just younger than you are, Seiji. It's nothing personal," Alex reassured me.

"Well, there's no shame in being ugly," Itsuki protested. "It's better than being overly narcissistic. But I guess if you like joking about it, then that's just you."

I shrugged, then turned my attention to Iketani, who kept looking around nervously. I watched him for a few moments, until my curiosity got the better of me and I said, "What are you looking for?"

He went rigid at the question, as if I'd smacked him, then his cheeks took on a slight pink tinge. He seemed at a loss of words for a while until he managed to say, "Umm… did you… did Impact Blue show up tonight?"

I raised one eyebrow in astonishment. "Yeah," I answered casually. "They're over there." I gestured to a spot further up the road, where Mako, Sayuki and the Night Kids boys were stationed. Iketani didn't answer, so I spoke again, "So, you want to talk to them, or something?"

"No… I…"

"Oi! Mako-chan! Sayuki-chan! There's someone here to wants to see you!" Alex yelled out, cupping his hands around his mouth. Iketani, Kenji and Itsuki reacted almost immediately, looking back and forth at each other with worried eyes. "What the hell did you do _that_ for?" Kenji hissed.

Alex shrugged innocently. "What did I do? You asked whether Mako-chan and Sayuki-chan were here. Seiji confirmed it. I just assumed that you wanted to talk to them, so I called them over. What's wrong with that?"

Second big thing that happened that night: Alex and I got stuck right in the middle of an unresolved situation. As Mako and Sayuki approached, with Takeshi and Shingo following curiously behind them, Sayuki gave a start and glared daggers at Iketani. "And what are _you_ doing here?"

"I… ah… was invited by Kenji's cousin, Miyoko-chan…" he brought out lamely.

I watched him carefully and noticed that his gaze was not leveled at Sayuki, but at Mako. I then followed his gaze to note that Mako was staring back at him, her eyes wide with surprise and… filled with pain?

Then it hit me. _Oh crap…_

I shook my head and muttered out a low, "Oh God… don't tell me…"

That got everyone's attention. They all looked at me, and Sayuki let out a rude, "What's wrong, Seiji? What's bothering _you_?"

I let out a long sigh. "Okay… now I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, so I may be wrong on this, but…" I gestured towards Iketani. "Iketani."

"Uh?"

I then gestured towards Mako. "Mako-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Did you two… have some sort of a relationship that fell apart somehow?"

Both of them turned a nice shade of pale pink. Mako was the one who managed a small, "Something… like that…"

I nodded slowly. "As I suspected…" I then let out another long sigh, clasped my hands behind my back, turned around and simply walked away, fully aware that everyone was watching me. Alex followed me, jogging to keep up. When I'd gone a slight distance, I stopped. Alex stopped beside me and spoke in a low voice, "Seiji, what's wrong?"

"It's just… awkward… I mean, I could tell that they're both still smarting from the breakup, but it's none of my business, so I don't think I have any right to intercede and try to straighten things out. Though even if I _did_ have that right, I wouldn't be able to do it right…" I let out yet another sigh. "I wish Miyoko were here. She'd know what to do."

"But she's racing," Alex replied. "You know that."

"You think I didn't know that? Jeez, I know I can be slow-witted at times, but I'm not a complete - Hey, how come they're all quiet?" I turned around and I saw all of them staring at both Alex and myself, not saying a word. "Hey, were you guys listening in on our conversation?!"

"No. Although we _were _wondering how come you walked away so suddenly like that," Takeshi responded honestly. I merely made a face, then gestured to Alex that we rejoin the group. As soon as we got there, they were all burning with curiosity. Kenji was the first to pipe up: "So… why did you walk away like that?"

I let out yet another sigh. "Now I'm no expert on relationships, despite having more experience with the subject than most of you - and none of them ended nicely, I might add, so don't ask. I won't tell - but as far as I can tell, whatever circumstances resulted in your relationship falling to shreds in a bad way must've been a result of miscommunication. You have two choices. One, you can resolve this properly and civilly - not necessarily within earshot of the rest of us - or two, we can all stand around here in an awkward silence until Miyoko's race is done."

"Well, you're awfully blunt about it," Shingo spoke, somewhat harshly.

I glared at him. "Look, I didn't come here to play the role of the listen lady… guy… whatever. We're all adults here, right? So you can resolve this like adults would… by simply talking it out. Right?"

"You know, maybe there's a reason why _you_ can't land another girlfriend," Sayuki declared, her face screwing up into a petulant pout.

I turned my attention to her. "I didn't ask you for your opinion," I growled menacingly, before I could stop myself. Alex was quick to interfere, as he stepped up and spoke, "Okay Seiji… calm down!"

"Jeez, what's _your_ problem tonight, Iwaki?" Takeshi demanded.

I let out a frustrated sigh and simply walked away, kicking at a rock nearby. Within seconds, I heard footsteps behind me and felt a hand clamp down on my arm. "Seiji! What the hell is wrong with you tonight?" Alex blurted out as he spun me around to face him. "Your behaviour back there was horrible, not to mention inexcusable! Nothing at all like I'd expected, even for you!"

I took a deep breath before I simply said, "Everything. There's the fact that Kyouichi just won't leave me the hell alone; there's the fact that Miyoko's currently racing against a goddamn racing pro; there's… _that_," I snapped, gesturing towards where the Speed Stars, Night Kids and Impact Blue were standing (and staring at us in shock and surprise). I then let out another sigh and said, "And I'm worried about Jin. He didn't seem like his usual self this past week. I think he's hiding something from me."

"You noticed it too?" Alex murmured, his face a solemn mask.

"Yeah. He pleaded not coming tonight because he said he was going out with some of his old buddies… He'd also added that they didn't quite get along with you and Miyoko, and that you two felt the same way about them. He also said that when Evo Prime started, he'd severed all ties with them, as he promised you two, but that he wanted to go hang out with them for old times' sake. But I'd told him that it was fine by me, and he still had a wary expression on his face, so he must be hiding something."

His facial expression was not one I'd expected. "That's a load of bullshit. Sure, Miyo and I never got along with Hirotsugu and his gang, but we let Jin go off and hang with them whenever he wanted to. We'd never restricted him from doing that, even after we'd started Evo Prime. Why'd he say that? To you, of all people, who I'd assumed that he'd trust above all else in this team?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. And now that I know that that's _not_ what he's doing, I'm even more worried as to where he is, and whether he's okay or not."

Alex made a face before he patted my shoulder reassuringly. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure Jin had a good reason for concealing it from you. Besides, he can take care of himself." He opened his mouth to say more, but at that moment, we heard the roar of engines approaching and we all saw Miyoko and Tomo pull up, followed by Daiki and Sakai in their respective vehicles.

Both Alex and I went to join them as they stepped out of their cars to join up with the rest of the group. The disappointed look on Miyoko's face told me one thing, "You lost."

"Yeah…" she mumbled, lowering her head. "I'm sorry, Seiji."

"Hey… you tried your best. And that's what counts. And besides, Tachi-san is a professional. You're still an amateur, as are most of us. To be brutally honest, you didn't stand a chance from the get-go. But as long as you tried your best, I have no reason to be angry with you."

"But still…" she began and was immediately silenced when Tomo put an arm around her and shook her affectionately.

"Put it this way, Ieyasu-chan… for an amateur, you did surprisingly well. You kept up with me for most of the way. That's very impressive, to me at least. You have a long way to go before you'll ever be able to compete at the professional level, but as you are, you're an excellent driver."

"I guess…" she replied hesitantly.

"What do you mean, 'you guess'? You don't think you're any good?" He then looked at me. "You must have a lot of problems with this one," he joked as he shook her affectionately again.

"Yeah, tell me about it." I was about to say more, but then I saw Miyoko's mouth crooked to one side and I knew she wasn't happy at all, despite the praise we were giving her, so I shrugged. "Well, I'm tired. What say we call it a night, huh?"

"Yes, let's," she agreed. She then disengaged herself from Tomo's grip and turned to face him. "Well… thank you for teaching me a valuable lesson, Tomo-san." She bowed.

"And thank you for an interesting race, Ieyasu-chan," he replied amicably as he bowed in return.

The drive home was a silent one, almost as if things were to get worse.

And I hate the uncanny ability of my gut instincts being right all the time.

When we got home, we saw that Jin's Evo was already parked in the driveway. What was peculiar about it was that both his taillights had been smashed in. We got out of our respective cars and stared at the damage in shock and confusion.

"What the hell happened to Jin's car?" Alex demanded.

"Maybe we should go in and find out," Miyoko suggested.

As I unlocked the front door and stepped into the house with Alex and Miyoko at my heels, I called out, "Jin? We're home!"

There was no answer.

"The kitchen light is on," Miyoko observed.

The three of us made our way in the darkened house towards the lighted kitchen. As we got there, we saw Jin seated at the kitchen counter, his back to us.

"Jin… what happened to your car? How'd your taillights get smashed in like that?" she queried.

Very slowly, my little brother turned around to face us… and we saw what else had been done.

"Jesus Almighty, what happened to _you_?!" Alex blurted out in shock, echoing the thoughts that reverberated in my (and Miyoko's) mind. Jin's face was a contusion of bumps and bruises. In one hand, he held an ice pack against his black eye, while his other hand rested calmly on his knee.

I slowly approached him. "Jin… what happened? Tell me…"

"Aniki…" he mumbled in a low, weak voice, "I'm sorry… I… I lied to you."

"I know about that, and I know it was a lie, but that's okay. Just tell me who did this to you."

"I… I didn't go to see my friends like I said…"

I let out a sigh. "I know that already, and as I said, it's fine. What concerns me is what happened to you. More importantly, who did this to you?"

He swallowed and winced before he spoke. "I… I went to Irohazaka…"

_Irohazaka…_ That only meant one thing…

"Jin," I spoke slowly, my voice striving for calm, "why'd you go to Irohazaka?"

My little brother looked like he was about to cry. "After… after I'd defeated Hiro and avenged the loss that got you kicked out of Emperor, I thought… I thought I could go… and avenge those who'd wronged you… and so I went to Irohazaka to challenge Kyouichi…"

"You're not saying _Kyouichi Sudou_ did this to you?" Miyoko cried out in a strangled voice.

I motioned for her to be quiet as I continued, "Then what happened?"

"He… he would not race me… instead, he sent some other guy… he had a really ugly face… and an even uglier blond mullet… I think his name was Satake… to race me instead. And I… and I won…"

"You won? But that's great! However that doesn't explain…" Alex began.

"Shut up, Alex," I admonished sharply. He fell silent. I turned my attention back to Jin. "Then what happened?"

"They… they started to insult the whole team, not just you… said stuff like Alex was a good-for-nothing gwai lo with too much luck on his hands… and Miyo was nothing but a spoiled princess with tons of money to burn… I told them to shut up… that we were better than they were… and then… they called you an incompetent moron… incapable of defeating any decent racers yourself… incapable of even leading a team consisting of little children… I told them that you had to have done something right if I was able to defeat him… and he had no right to brag if he still hadn't told Kyouichi about how he lost to Mako and Sayuki on Usui…" His expression became more aggrieved as he continued, "Then… then he and one of his friends… lit into me, while the others simply watched and laughed. Kyouichi eventually showed up… and he did nothing to stop his team… Then they smashed my taillights and… and they told me to take my sorry excuse of an Evo home…" He then started to choke on his words. "I'm sorry…"

I didn't say anything for a long while. When I finally spoke, my voice was low and controlled, but all three of them could detect the undercurrent of rage that was unmistakably there, "Listen to me, Jin. You did nothing wrong. In fact, I'm very proud of you that you didn't throw the first punch. The one thing that infuriates me the most about this whole thing… is that Kyouichi did nothing to stop it." My face hardened as I continued to speak, "He has more honor than that as a racer, and I definitely would not expect him to allow his teammates to physically harm another human being, even if you are related to me. And even then, if he really wanted to hurt me, then he should have come after _me_, or issued a challenge to _me_, not allow his teammates to beat the crap out of you."

"Well, to be honest, it _was_ stupid of you to go to Irohazaka in the first place," Miyoko ventured hesitantly.

I wheeled on her. "You shut up!" I raged. Miyoko took a practiced step backwards. "I don't think you fully understand, but nobody… and I mean _NOBODY BEATS UP ON_ _MY FAMILY_, do you understand! And that goes for both of you, too!"

Alex held up his hands in defense. "Okay, okay! We're sorry! But we weren't the ones who…"

I clenched my teeth so hard I could feel my jaw quivering, then I inhaled sharply and expelled the air slowly. When I spoke, I was calm again. "That's not what I meant. What I meant was… if Emperor or anyone else had beaten up on either of you two, I'd be in the same state as I am right now." They stared at me in mute shock, without saying a word, as I turned to my brother again. "Don't worry about it, Jin. I'll get them… I'll get them for you… _and_ for Evo Prime. They're not going to get away with this."

* * *

… Those bastards…

Yes, that's how I decided to bring in the much-awaited showdown between Seiji and Kyouichi. I figured that since Seiji is happy as he is, being the leader of Evo Prime, he has no reason to go back to Emperor, be it for vengeance or just for a race to prove how well he's trained his teammates. He could simply go into other prefectures as guests of his newfound friends and maybe other local racers would deign to take them on, and he'd have no reason to bother Emperor. So, I decided to have Jin go to Irohazaka, afire with the zeal to avenge his beloved brother, and get into more trouble than he'd expected. Obviously, Kyouichi does have too much honor to personally attack someone who's wronged him, so I made it that it was Satake who would beat the living daylights out of the younger Iwaki. And what better way to arouse his anger than the threat of Kyouichi finding out after all these years that, in fact, his new second-in-command had also been defeated mercilessly in Gunma… by a pair of ladies? And Kyouichi, still full of himself over the fact that he'd kicked out Seiji with the intent of punishing him, only to realize that he'd bettered himself by the dismissal, does nothing to stop it. Hence Seiji's burst of rage at the end. He knows Kyouichi all too well, and even something like _that_ is a shocker to him.

Also since Iketani actually did show up this time to the race, I figured might as well bring in some sort of confrontation between himself and Mako. And while I'm sure many people right now are thinking, "Oh, are they going to get back together?" I must say, Maybe, but not in my story. Thus why Seiji acts the way he does when he pieces together the reason why Iketani and Mako are so muddled. It's none of his business, it's none of anyone else's business, and it's not exactly the time and place to be resolving it. Much less is it his responsibility to play the mediator in a personal affair. So I humbly apologize to the Iketani and Mako fans reading this fic, but their issue isn't going to be resolved anytime soon. At least not in this story.

And, for obvious reasons, Miyoko lost against Tomo. All the luck in the world isn't going to make her miraculously become the victor in a race against a rally professional. But at least Tomo was nice about it.

-BoomChish


	16. CH16: Beat Of The Rising Sun

I cannot apologize more for the lengthy lack of updates, since I started university for the first time earlier last month and I've had my hands full with readings and studying and the like. But now that I have my new baby (my beautiful Dell Inspiron 1000), I can update from the comfort of the classroom/library/other location within the school.

Here's Chapter Sixteen!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Sixteen

Beat Of The Rising Sun

Even though it had been months since I'd hung out with Kyouichi, I was still aware of his regular routine. On Sunday afternoons, he liked going to Irohazaka alone, just to mull over certain events. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to confront him over what had happened last night.

As I got into my car and made my way to Irohazaka, I thought about the brief years I'd spent as a member of Kyouichi's power-Evo team, the Irohazaka Emperors. After Kyouichi had retired from the rally scene and started Emperor, I had pretty much become his closest friend - if one could use such a term for our odd relationship - and confidant. Whenever something or someone had wronged him, I ended up hearing about it, or if something could stand for improvement, be it for me or someone else, I'd hear about it anyway. And believe it or not, on certain occasions, when he was bored, he would call me up and we would both drive around the area together and talk. Nothing immoral or anything like that, just as friends. In a way, he and I were very close.

Which was what made my expulsion from Emperor all that harsher when he tossed me aside after my loss to Jin's school friend. And now, aside from that, he'd actually had the audacity to stand idly by and let his teammates - people who used to look to me, despite my shortcomings - beat up on _my _little brother. As if overnight, I and anyone associated with me were nothing more than rats from the gutter.

The very thought of it alone was enough to enrage me. But I knew that I had to try my best not to completely lose my temper and go ballistic. Because by doing that, I would only be reducing myself to their level. And as the leader of Evo Prime, I was better than that. I had to be. For the sake of my brother, Alex and Miyoko, if for nothing else.

As I drove up to the summit of Irohazaka, I was glad (and somewhat relieved) to see that Kyouichi was alone. For obvious reasons, I knew that if the rest of Emperor were there, I'd be in very great danger. If they had no scruples in beating up Jin, then they wouldn't hesitate to do the same to me.

He was watching me with cold, calculating eyes as I pulled up behind his black Evo III and killed the engine before I stepped out of my car, my face benign.

"I thought you'd be with your teammates at Happo, helping them train to become better racers," he spoke flippantly.

"You know why I'm here," I replied, my voice flat.

He cocked an eyebrow insolently, then shrugged. "Your brother, I suppose."

_'I suppose'?_ My temper flared. "And you have nothing to say for yourself?"

Kyouichi merely shrugged. "Why? I'm not the one who beat him up, you know."

"I _know that! _This is not about _you_ harming my brother; it's about _your_ team members harming my brother, and _you_ not stopping them! I've seen some pretty low things in my lifetime, but _that_ was worse than low; it was despicable!"

He let out a drawn-out sigh. "So you're angry at the fact that your brother insulted my team members, rousing them to lose control and physically attack him. That's understandable. After all, he _is_ your blood sibling. Just a theoretical question if I may, Seiji? What if it _hadn't_ been your brother? What if it was, per se… your gwai lo friend? Or what about Ieyasu-chan? Would you still be here, complaining to me about the greatest injustice in the world?"

I shook my head in disgust. "I don't believe you. You've fallen so far beyond the team leader you used to be… Never before in my life have I seen such negligence of human respect - coming from _you_, of all people. It _doesn't matter_ who it was. The fact of the matter is that your team members harmed another human being for no real reason other than a heated verbal exchange. It doesn't matter whether the victim was my brother, or any of my other teammates. Hell, it wouldn't matter if the victim was some cocky little guttersnipe who thought himself better than you were! It's still wrong to attack somebody for something that trivial, and even more wrong of you as a team leader to allow that sort of behaviour!"

"Seiji, Seiji, Seiji…" Kyouichi murmured as he began to pace around, the corners of his mouth curling into a devious smile. "You seem to be so full of righteous indignation at this moment… I've never seen you like this before, and it astounds me." He then fixed me with a direct stare. "Tell me… do you _actually think_ that you're a better team leader than _I _am?"

I balled my hands into tight fists. "I don't _think_ I'm a better team leader than you are - I _know_ I'm a better team leader! It doesn't matter if my teammates aren't the most skilled road racers in the prefecture; at least they see me as more than just a leader, but more as a family member! I do my best to teach them how to improve, all while keeping them in check. And they respect me for it!"

Kyouichi threw his head back and let out a short laugh. "Such poetry!" Then he straightened himself and glared at me again, his devious smile still plastered on his face. "Well then… if you think that you're better than me, then how about we settle this with a race? Me against you, any track you choose. Excluding Irohazaka, since that will be too easy for both of us; and Happogahara, since that's your newfound home course. Well, what do you say?"

I eyed him warily, especially since I knew I stood a slim chance of winning against him, but I _did_ want to prove myself to him, so I said, "Which track did you have in mind?"

Kyouichi stretched out his arms. "Anywhere. You decide."

I thought for a moment. He _was _right, Irohazaka was obviously too easy for both of us. And on Happogahara, I had the distinct advantage. Not that it mattered, since he could easily squash me if he went against me with his full potential. Same thing applied for Enna Pass, in which _he_ had the advantage. I thought about the mountain passes in Gunma; but I remembered that he'd been to nearly all of them when Emperor had gone for their attempt to conquer all the mountain passes in the prefecture.

_Nearly _all of them…

I looked at him squarely in the eye and said, quite succinctly. "Let's have it on Mt. Usui, in Gunma. You know where that is, right?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Usui? Why there?"

It was my turn to shrug. "Neither of us have been there yet. If you recall, it was Satake who was supposed to scout the area first, and he came back, claiming that there was no one worthy enough to race there, remember?" A part of me _really_ wanted to spill the whole story about how Satake had gotten his butt handed to him by Impact Blue, but I figured I'd keep that to myself until the actual race, when he'd be sure to be in attendance. After all, I _had_ to see how Kyouichi would react to _that_, and what he would do about it.

"So I take it neither of us are to venture on Usui until the actual race… let's say… a week from today?"

I nodded. "A week seems fine to me. And as for the no-practice clause, I'm all for it."

He sniffed derisively. "So it's settled then. Mt. Usui next Sunday night. Don't be late." With that, he got into his Evo, started the engine and drove off. I stood there for a while, watching him leave as I inhaled sharply to gather my wits about me. Then I went to my own Evo and decided to head on home to update the others on what was happening.

---

None of them were pleased with the news. It was fair to say that they were quite upset, so much so that Miyoko insisted upon calling Mako and Sayuki to come over and help devise a battle strategy against Kyouichi. I'd protested, pointing out the no-practice rule, but she dismissed it, saying, "Hey, to my knowledge, Kyouichi doesn't know that we're friends with the champions of Usui. As long as you don't physically show yourself on Usui before the actual race, he has no reason to believe that you've had any practice with the course."

"It's still not fair," I pointed out.

"It's not fair that they beat up on Jin, now, is it?" Alex retaliated angrily. Miyoko nodded in agreement, and I sadly had to agree with them as well. My brother never did anything to deserve that treatment, and yet, he fell victim to it.

Jin wasn't in the room with us. He felt extremely embarrassed when he'd learned that Miyoko had invited over Impact Blue for a conference concerning my race against Kyouichi. I guess he was ashamed of showing himself, even though he had nothing to be ashamed of. I was sure that Mako and Sayuki would understand and maybe sympathize with his current state, though unfortunate it may be.

They arrived at around half past noon, Sparky barking and wagging his tail affectionately as he greeted the two ladies from Impact Blue when they stepped into the house. Both of them petted the large Labrador affectionately. "He's so adorable. Whose dog is he?" Sayuki commented as Sparky happily submitted to her petting.

"Sparky's my dog. I brought him with me when I came here from America. He was just a puppy back then. But either way, it's nice seeing you two again."

"Nice seeing you guys again. Nice house you got here," Mako spoke as she looked around.

"Thanks. I'm glad you like it," Miyoko replied as she smiled thinly.

I made a face, and Sayuki caught it right away. She hustled all of us into the living room. "Okay, you called us here because Seiji got challenged to a race against Kyouichi, right? And the race would be held on Usui, if I recall correctly?"

"Uh… that's right," I agreed as I sat down on the couch. Miyoko and Alex sat next to me, as Mako and Sayuki sat down across from us on the divan. Sparky wagged his tail, then settled down at Alex's feet. Sayuki folded her arms across her chest and looked squarely at me. "Okay, so what encouraged you to choose Usui as a mountain pass?"

"It's the only mountain pass I'm sure that Kyouichi hasn't visited. He deliberately passed over it because Satake told him that there was no one worthy enough to race there, thus making it useless to go there. He obviously didn't mention you two, especially since you royally kicked his butt."

Mako made a face. "At least we crushed his pride. Because we worked hard to prove ourselves as the best on Usui." She then looked over at the others, then looked concerned. "Hey, where's Jin?"

"Well… he's a bit embarrassed to show himself after he'd gotten beaten up by Emperor. We told him there was nothing to be ashamed of, but… well, we can't force him to change his mind," Alex admitted ruefully.

Sayuki shook her head, then faced me again. "Here's the thing; why don't you just go and practice on Usui? That'll give you an edge against Sudou. Since he's never been there, he'll have to react on reflex, whereas you'll already have a feel for the course."

I shook my head this time. "I can't. Kyouichi and I specifically agreed on not practicing on the course we'd be racing on. Especially since Irohazaka and Happogahara were already excluded considering they are our respective home courses. And the other mountain passes, I was sure that Kyouichi had already driven on them." Seeing their confused looks, I added, "So what can you tell me about Usui? What's so difficult about it?"

The two ladies of Impact Blue exchanged glances. "Mt. Usui's mountain pass is very difficult because it's a very narrow two-way road. In addition to it being extremely narrow, the curves come out of nowhere back and forth. It's basically just one continuous drift. You'll need extreme control of your vehicle while racing, because if you're not careful, you could end up hitting the wall, or the guardrail."

I narrowed my eyes as they were explaining their mountain pass. Kyouichi had been trained in the way of the rally and mostly practiced on Irohazaka, which was a one-way road. Meaning he never really had to take on the challenge of racing someone with the possibility of an incoming car. Which is why some of his drifts weren't tight enough, because he kept leaving enough leeway to steer free if in the case a car came out of nowhere.

"Wait a minute… Is that why you two race together? Sayuki-chan, you navigate and point out the faults of the road and the turns so that all Mako-chan has to do is focus on driving. Is that why you are unbeatable on Usui?"

"Oh, we've been defeated," Sayuki spoke robustly. "By the one boy who can defeat us all… Fujiwara Takumi. But you probably knew that, right?"

I should have known… "Oh well… I don't think anyone will defeat that boy anytime soon. But as for you two… You must be proud of yourselves, being the champions of Usui and all…"

Mako frowned as Sayuki snorted derisively. "Well, we worked hard at perfecting our driving. Most of the other road racers on Usui just show off their half-assed moves to the girls in the galleries. If they took half that time in actually practicing some real drifting, maybe they'd be able to stand up to us."

"I doubt it… if Usui is as dangerous as you say it is." I was starting to get excited. It was a while since I've seriously raced. And even moreso, I was racing for my family pride and the pride of my team, which made it all the more exciting. "Do you know where I can find a map of Usui?"

Miyoko had been furiously typing on her laptop. "Here. This is what Usui looks like." She pointed to her screen and I looked at it. It was a long, widing road with a lot of sharp curves. Definitely something worth racing Kyouichi on.

I turned the laptop around and showed the screen to Mako and Sayuki. "What can you tell me about this curve here?" I pointed to it on the screen, a large, round curve near one end.

Mako smiled as she saw me point to it and decided to answer. "That… is C-121, the single most longest drift on Usui. If you enter the curve too fast, you'll oversteer like crazy, if you enter the curve too slow, you'll lose too much speed upon exit. Sayuki and I have achieved the fastest speed entering C-121, which is part of the reason why we're indestructible on the course."

I thought about it for a second. If C-121 were as lengthy as they described it to be, then I did have a distinct advantage against Kyouichi, even without actually actually racing on the track before our race. And as far as I was concerned right now, Miyoko was right; as long as I kept to my side of the bargain of not racing on Usui before the race, I had nothing to be ashamed of.

Sayuki was about to speak, but a noise interrupted us. Jin stepped into the room, looking around sheepishly. The bruises on his face had began to go down, but the purplish tinge was still there. He looked like he hadn't slept a wink in days.

"Sorry I'm late…" he mumbled as he came into the room. Mako looked quietly shocked while Sayuki stared at him. "I just had to try and fix myself up, to be more presentable…"

"What are you apologizing for?" she demanded. "You didn't do anything wrong… except maybe try and take on Emperor by yourself. You shouldn't be ashamed of your appearance, Jin. Sure, the bruises may have marred your bishounen look from before, but it's not something easy to hide. As long as you didn't inherently do something to deserve it, then you should be proud that you can still stand and face the world with a face like that."

"Exactly what I said," I agreed as Jin took a seat on the armchair.

Mako was still looking at him in shock. "How… how did they do that to you?"

Jin made a face. "Very easily… I was stupid enough to mock Satake for not having defeated you back when Emperor first came to Gunma, and he and a friend of his just lit into me. Just like that."

She made a face. "And so you went to confront Sudou for what he did to your brother and he subsequently challenged you to a battle?" she queried, looking at me. I nodded my head solemnly.

Mako raised her eyebrows. "I'm surprised Sudou was willing to accept that the race be on an unfamiliar track. I would've thought that'd he'd insist for it to be on Irohazaka right away."

"Well, he gave me the option to choose, so I chose Usui. I figured it would be a good choice… what do you think?"

"It's an excellent choice. But there are a few things you need to take into consideration, since your car is 4WD and not FR, like our SilEighty. You may have a disadvantage taking the same line we take when we drive on Usui."

"I'll just have to adapt," I replied stolidly.

"All right…" Mako began. "Here's some things you'll need to know about racing on Usui…"

---

It was late in the evening when both ladies of Impact Blue left. Jin had returned to hibernating in his room to recover from his bruises, Alex went to feed Sparky and Miyoko and I were seated at the kitchen counter, sipping tea.

"Seiji, aren't you worried at all about this race?" Miyoko asked me. Lately, she'd been asking me too many questions about my car's condition. She normally didn't care for car modifications, so it was surprising to see her so concerned.

"Maybe a bit, since Kyouichi is obviously more skilled than I am. But otherwise, I'm not afraid. Why do you ask?"

She stared absently at the fridge magnets before she looked at me again. "Call me paranoid… but I think we should all get roll cages installed in our cars. Or, if not all of us, at least in yours. For your race against Kyouichi."

I nearly choked on the tea that I'd gulped down. "What? I don't need a roll cage, Miyoko. I've raced on more treacherous tracks than Usui and escaped without a single scratch. I can handle it."

Miyoko reached out and gripped my hand fiercely. I winced at the force behind her squeeze and saw the fear in her eyes. "Seiji, I mean it. I don't want anything to happen to you. I think it'd be safer if you had a roll cage. I think it'd be safer for _all of us _to have a roll cage in our cars."

"Miyoko, why do you think we should get roll cages? What makes you so unsure that I can protect myself behind the wheel of my car?"

She looked like she was about to cry. "I just don't want anything to happen to you, Seiji. _Anything_ can happen, especially on a narrow mountain pass like Usui. If Kyouichi's teammates are willing to hurt Jin without any thought for the consequences, what makes you so sure they won't try to sabotage your race and try to hurt you?"

As much as I knew she was being paranoid, I knew that she had a point. These were people who had looked up to me for a long time. If they were willing, without any shame or thought of the consequences, to beat up on my little brother for defending himself, then who's to say that they won't do the same to me while I'm racing Kyouichi?

I looked at her squarely in the eye. "But my race against Kyouichi is this coming Sunday. You mean to tell me that you can get roll cages installed in _all our cars_ before this Sunday?"

Her face turned smug. "You're forgetting who I am, Seiji dear."

_Right._ Miyoko Ieyasu can do whatever she wants if she's got the income for it. "I've already spoken to my mechanic. He says he can have it done tomorrow, if you'd like. I just told him to hold off until I had the confirmation from you."

"You've been thinking about this for a while now, haven't you?" I queried suspiciously.

"Ever since I got into that car crash because of Shingo, yes," she admitted.

I let out a snort. "I still think you're a bit paranoid," here, I squeezed her hand back, "but if it'll make you feel better, I'll get the roll cage installed. What do you say?"

Miyoko let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, good. I'll go and tell him that it's all been settled. Does tomorrow sound okay?"

"Fine, but how will I get to work while my car is getting the roll cage installed?"

"You can use mine. I can get a ride to school with Alex," she explained as she simply placed her car keys in the palm of my hand. I simply sat there, my eyebrows raised as I stared down at her keys in my hand, which had, among other things, a small Maneki Neko keychain on it. Well. Girls will be girls.

"Thanks a lot, Miyoko. And don't you guys worry; I'll do my best."

She smiled, her eyes twinkling. "I never have to worry about you doing your best, Seiji. That's why the team always looks up to you, even when you're at your dumbest." She ducked sideways to avoid my hand as I swatted at her in indignation.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ dumb, woman!" I exclaimed, while laughing at her. I knew she was joking.

But it was nice to know that she cared that much about me.

Emperor was never like that.

* * *

The challenge has been made and what better place to hold it than Impact Blue's own home course of Usui? A narrow course that spans a wide area, a two-way lane, countless corners zigzagging one after the other and the infamous C-121. Plus, neither Seiji or Kyouichi have been on Usui (according to my knowledge of the anime and manga), so it's almost too perfect. It would've probably made sense to have them race on Irohazaka, but I wanted someplace less predictable. I could've used Momiji line, but that would require having to drag in Seven Star Reaf, as with the Northwest Saitama All-Stars for Shomaru and the Evo guys on Tsuchizaka. And I just have no reason to use them in the story at all, so I might as well put it on Usui.

For those of you who don't know, the Maneki Neko is that white cat with one paw raised up, as if it's waving. It's supposed to signify prosperity and good luck, and was also the inspiration for Hello Kitty, which is why Miyoko has a small Maneki Neko keychain along with her keys. It's sort of like her good-luck charm. I thought of using Hello Kitty, or some of the other ones, (Keroppi, Pocchaco, Badtz-Maru, Kogepan or even Chibimaru) but that would be almost too girly-girl for Miyoko to have on her keychain.

The big race comes up next. Can you feel the tension?

-BoomChish


	17. CH17: Don't Stop The Music

Okay… how can I put this… This will be my last update for a while. Why? I have midterms up the wazoo and they've been eating into my free time. This is the second-to-last chapter anyhow, so… yeah. I'm almost done!

Here's Chapter Seventeen!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Seventeen

Don't Stop The Music

Sunday. 9:30 PM.

The galleys were already packed to full capacity at Mt. Usui. News of my race against Kyouichi traveled really fast. I could barely even begin to count all the people who were chatting animatedly, and gesticulating towards my car, which stood patiently at the finish line, me standing next to it.

I stared at it as if for inspiration. The street light glinted off the fine finish of my car's hood. My eyes followed the outline of my car to the inside, where the roll cage was barely visible through my windows. I knew I could see it, because I knew it was there. I wondered if I would be called out for cheating just for having it.

Jin came up to me. He'd put on a silly pair of tinted glasses. The lenses were red, so his bruises didn't show that badly. "Aniki, are you okay? You look nervous."

"Well, why wouldn't I be? I'm racing against my former team leader. Who, I might add, has much more skill than I do. But I'm still going to try my darndest to win. For you, if not for anything else." I then smiled and clapped him on the shoulder before pulling him in for a hug, which he returned. "You know I'd do anything for you, little brother."

"I know. That's why you're the coolest big brother I know."

I smiled and shook his hair affectionately before I relinquished my hold on him. At that moment Alex came to join us. "Everything all right?" he asked me.

"As all right as it can be. All I have to do now is wait for Emperor to show up." I looked around, then sighed. "Truth be told, I am very worried."

Alex dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Oh, come on, Seiji! We know you're better than him! You can beat him for sure!"

My face was smug. "I appreciate your support, but unfortunately, I don't think you realize exactly how much skill Kyouichi has. Do I have a chance of beating him? Yes, but it's rather slim. Can I beat him for sure? Absolutely not."

"Well, you're awfully pessimisstic," he mused.

I shook my head. "Sorry. It's not my intention to bring your hopes down. But realistically speaking, I _don't_ stand much of a chance. Choosing Usui as a race track was possibly one way I could tilt the odds in my favour, since Kyouichi hasn't driven on it before, and neither have I."

"But why not take Happogahara if you wanted an advantage?" Alex demanded.

"Because Kyouichi and I mutually agreed that Irohazaka and Happogahara were out of the question, the former being Emperor's home track and the latter being _our_ home track. Putting it on Happo would make it too much in my favor, as putting it on Iro would put it in Kyouichi's favor," I explained.

"But… Aniki, that doesn't make sense… _You_ used to be a member of Emperor, so technically, you _must_ have had practice on Irohazaka… How come he didn't want the match held there?"

I let out another sigh. "Jin, I would've thought that you above all would understand why Irohazaka was out of the question, seeing as you're the only one aside from me in Evo Prime who's been there." I waited until I had his attention before I continued, "On Irohazaka's downhill, there are only two real attack points; the stretch at the beginning of the downhill and the final stretch at the end. Throughout the rest of the course, the course is too narrow to allow _any_ passing. Kyouichi knows this all too well, and knows that I absolutely wouldn't stand a chance agaisnt him if our race were to be held on Irohazaka. I think he wanted an even playing ground for us, so that he could see for himself how much I've changed as a result of becoming Evo Prime's leader."

Jin inclined his head. "That makes sense…"

Alex looked around. "You know, I find it odd that Miyoko doesn't seem to be concerned at all about your race…" he spoke somewhat spitefully as he looked over at Miyoko, who was in deep conversation with Tomo and the other two Todo boys. I turned to look at her and saw that she seemed to be discussing something of great importance to my current race, seeing as she was making a lot of hand gestures and occasionally would point in the direction of my car.

"You know, I don't think it's fair for you to jump to that conclusion. I doubt that she doesn't care," I spoke, and to prove it, I called out to her, "Miyoko, could you come here for a minute, please?"

She turned and looked at me, then motioned that she'd be back in a moment, then crossed over to where I was standing. "Yes, Seiji? What is it?"

"It may not be my business, but what exactly were you discussing with Tomo? It seemed to be very important concerning the race tonight."

"How perceptive of you. I was asking him about Kyouichi's driving style and what would be his disadvantages here on Usui in comparison to you and your car." She then eyed me warily. "Why? What did you think I was talking about?"

I then gestured towards Alex. "Maybe you should ask him." Miyoko then looked over at Alex, who merely shook his head and gave her a clueless look. She ended up narrowing her eyes at him, but said nothing. She then faced me again and smiled. "Good luck tonight, Seiji. Just do your best."

"I will. And thanks." Before I could say anything else, she then wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big hug. I just stood there, stunned for a moment, before I hugged her back. Then I let her go. She smiled and gave me a thumbs-up, then went back over to where the Todo Racing School boys were standing, whereupon she resumed her conversation with Tomo.

Alex watched her for a bit, then shrugged. "You think there's anything going on between Tomo and Miyoko?" he queried out of nowhere.

"If there is, so what? It's her life; she can do as she pleases with it," I pointed out.

Jin was about to add a comment to that when I heard a shout from one of the other Night Kids (not Shingo or Takeshi) who'd come to witness the race. "Emperor is coming, Seiji!"

Everyone in the galleys started to murmur among themselves, while Miyoko and Tomo ceased their conversation and exchanged one last comment before Miyoko came up to join us. The four of us stood around my car, watching and waiting.

Waiting until we saw the domineering headlights of Kyouichi's black Evo III followed by the rest of Emperor drive up in the oppressive darkness. Kyouichi pulled up right next to my Evo IV while the others parked off to the side.

The moment Kyouichi emerged from his car and closed the door behind him, an eerie silence fell upon Usui. I glared at him in silent contempt. His glare equalled mine in complete disdain for me.

It was difficult, and yet so easy, to take into mind the fact that he and I used to be on the same team, on the same side of the battle, but now we were bitter rivals. He was such because of his complete disrespect for the loyalty I'd once served him and for the complete lack of respect he'd shown towards my brother, who'd done nothing to him. I was such because I'd refused to leave Emperor quietly, because I'd gone and formed my own team, and subsequently achieved a different kind of admiration from the road racing scene than Emperor could ever dream of achieving.

Neither of us said a word for a while. In a way, I was glad that I was no longer a part of Emperor. Being Evo Prime's leader taught me that there was more to being in a road racing team than beating the socks off whoever tries to challenge you. If a victory forges a strong bond of respect and friendship, then our task had been accomplished.

Kyouichi, finally, was the first to speak, "So you've come. For a second, I'd thought you'd chicken out and pull a no-show."

My expression remaind stony. "That's a coward's way out. And I'm no coward."

He didn't reply. Satake stepped up and stood a few paces behind Kyouichi. "You seem awfully calm tonight Seiji. Do you have some secret trick hidden up your sleeve for the race tonight?"

I glared at Kyouichi for a moment before I shifted my gaze over to Satake, yet another one of my former teammates and the perpetrator of my brother's attack. "_You_ seem to be awfully calm being here Satake. Especially after what happened the _last _time you came here to Usui."

He stiffened a bit, but quickly regained his composure. "I have no reason to be worried here tonight. After all, _I'm_ not the one going up against Kyouichi."

I was about to counter that when I heard Miyoko call out, "Mako! Sayuki! Could you two come here for a minute, please?" When I turned around to look at her, she was waving to Mako and Sayuki, who had been standing about twenty metres away. I watched them approach, then I cast a sideways glance at Satake, who kept his gaze leveled, but I could tell his discomfort.

When the two ladies of Impact Blue had finally come up to us, Sayuki glared at Satake with open fury. "You again? Wasn't your last butt-whipping enough?"

He didn't say anything, though Kyouichi turned to stare at him. "_Last_ butt-whipping?"

"Well… um…"

"Two years ago, when you came to Gunma in an attempt to dominate it, he came here to Usui to challenge us. And we decimated him." Sayuki spoke as she put an arm around Mako, who nodded in agreement.

Kyouichi was still staring at Satake. "Is that true?"

"Uh… sort of?" he mumbled lamely.

All of us watched with interest as Kyouichi kept his icy glare on Satake for a good full minute or so. Then he let out a big sigh and shook his head. I could feel a wave of disappointment overcome me. _That was it? No punishment? He's changed too much_.

I thought too soon, for out of nowhere, Kyouichi lifted his hand and brought it down in a stinging slap across Satake's face. His head snapped to one side and his teeth were firmly clenched. I saw my teammates wince at the impact, which I didn't blame them, because I did too. After all, I remembered exactly what it felt like being on the receiving end of Kyouichi's slap of doom.

"You mean you came here to Usui during our wave of domination in Gunma, was defeated by a pair of women… and you never bothered to tell me? For two whole years?!"

Satake still kept his head to the side. "I didn't think you'd find out," he spoke through clenched teeth. I had to hold myself in, but I was laughing inside.

Kyouichi had no response to that, but when he turned back to me, his glare had intensified tenfold, and became even more fierce when he'd noticed that I had a slight smirk on my face. He jabbed a finger at me. "Wipe off that smug look! _You_ probably wouldn't have done any better if you'd tried!"

I shrugged insolently. "Well, we'll never know now, shall we?"

There was no answer. Mako and Sayuki then cast each other sidelong glances before they turned to me and chirped, "Well, good luck Seiji! We're rooting for you!"

I smiled and waved to them. "Well thank you, ladies. That's very kind of you."

Kyouichi scoffed at that last exchange. "So… is that where you get your encouragement? From your little harem?" he spoke crudely as he cast a disdaindful glare straight at Miyoko. My smile was instantly wiped off my face and my expression hardened, although it was no match for the combined glare of Mako, Sayuki and Miyoko.

"_What_ did you say?" Miyoko demanded through clenched teeth as her hands balled into two tight fists. Mako and Sayuki were no less threatening. _Dear God… if I thought a pissed-off Miyoko was bad, imagine a pissed-off Miyoko with Mako and Sayuki in the same state…_ The thought wasn't reassuring.

Satake unwisely found a way to score; "I knew that you were masochistic Seiji, but having your pretty little harem duke it out for you? You must take it very well."

It was unwise for him to voice those words, to say the least. Especially when Miyoko quickly strode forward and delivered a swift roundhouse kick straight to Satake's face, sending him sprawling on his back. The rest of Emperor watched in horror, then all of them glared in succession at Miyoko, who now stood but a few feet away from Kyouichi, her green eyes blazing with fury. "I didn't take twelve years of martial arts for nothing, you know," she growled.

"I'm not here to start arguments with you, little girl. I'm here for my race against Seiji."

"Then get on with it, you arrogant piece of shit!" she raged before she stormed over to where I was standing. "Go and kick his butt, Seiji! That sonofabitch deserves to get his ass trounced!"

I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Look, you better calm down this instant, Miyoko. I understand you're upset, but violence isn't the answer. You're just lowering yourself down to their level." After she stepped aside, still fuming, I glared at Kyouichi. "So what type of race is this going to be?"

He glanced at the winding pass of Usui, then back at me. "A classic touge style. Considering your inexperience in comparison to me, I'll let you take the position of chaser. When I flash my lights, the race beings. You ready?"

"I'm ready for any crap you have to throw at me," I answered firmly.

At that point, Satake got to his feet and glared daggers at Miyoko. "You little bitch! How dare you!" he shouted as he was about to charge her, but Kyouichi held him back.

"No. Leave them be," he spoke.

"What! You mean I'm just going to _let_ her get away with that? She kicked me in the face, Kyouichi! _No woman_ does that to me and gets away with it!"

"Don't be stupid, Satake. You see all these people here who've come to witness the race? They're _all _here to root for Seiji. If you so much as try to lay a finger on Ieyasu-chan, they'll all come out and beat the stuffing out of you. Do you honestly think you can hold them _all_ off? Besides, you beat up on Seiji's brother. She kicked you in the face. I think it's even."

"I…" he began to protest, but he fell silent, glaring at Miyoko with fierce hatred. I sent him my coldest glare, as if to tell him _You try to harm Miyoko while I'm racing Kyouichi and I'll personally hunt you down_. As it was, I didn't have to worry, since Tomo, Daiki and Sakai came to stand near me.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Seiji. We'll make sure that Emperor doesn't try any funny stuff on your team while you're racing."

I smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

"All right Aniki! Give 'em hell!" Jin cheered.

---

I straightened myself in my seat as I saw Kyouichi's lights flash and he took off into the winding curves of Usui. I set my foot down on the accelerator and took off after him.

It had begun…

As the corners came fast and unexpected, I carefully kept a tight rein on my car, drifting into the corners with little difficulty. Kyouichi wasn't all that far ahead of me, even though he was having an easier time on the road. Despite all my difficulty, I noticed that my driving was less choppy than Kyouichi. Of course, my car had the AYC system whereas his didn't, but he had much more skill than I did. So in a sense, we were equal; he had the skills to take on the difficult course, I had the superior car for the race.

I followed Kyouichi into a particularly sharp turn and I caught a glimpse of Miyoko's cousin Kenji, waving and cheering, alongside his teammates, Iketani and Itsuki. I smiled somewhat smugly, since two years ago, they were cheering for my opponent, who happened to be the legendary Fujiwara Takumi. Now, they were cheering for me. Fate works in strange ways…

As I was driving, I thought back over the time I'd spent as Evo Prime's leader. What had initially started as a simple invitation from my brother to live with him turned into the ultimate turning point which changed me and my life completely. Had I remained in my old apartment by myself after being kicked out, I would have probably remained as I was back in Emperor, crude, overconfident and disgustingly chauvinistic. But living with my brother and his friends taught me that there's more to life than being the best at what I love to do. I learned patience, humility, respect and even eventual wisdom. I became more than just a skilled driver in an Evo; I learned how to be a leader. I learned how to encourage people to look up to me, and not by force, but rather through charisma…

Charisma I never knew I'd had, that I'd never thought that I could possess, considering my appearance and its limitations in the average standard of physical beauty. But nevertheless, people looked up to me and listened to me, even when I wasn't at my wisest.

It was a true honor that I never would have dreamed of possessing if I'd remained in Emperor.

A sharp hairpin caught my attention as I turned the wheel just enough to allow my car to slide into the turn. As I felt my tires give way just a wee bit, I tapped on the brakes and downshifted as I exited the hairpin gracefully right behind Kyouichi, who wasn't letting up the fight either.

I started to wonder what exactly did Kyouichi have at stake for this race. I knew that if I'd lost, it would mean that I'd failed in my vengeance for my brother. _But then, didn't Miyoko already achieve that for me when she'd kicked Satake in the face when he made that harem joke? And he _was_ the one who'd actually beat up on Jin that night…_

I shook my head at that thought. No, it was much more than that. He'd done more than Satake could have ever done by not interrupting him when he'd begun beating up on my little brother. He'd proven to me and to many others that when it came to personal issues, he had no morals, no ethics. For him, as long as he'd won against those who'd wronged him, he was happy. It made me think about Kyouichi's old rivalry between himself and the legendary Ryousuke Takahashi. Ryousuke had done nothing but flat out defeat Kyouichi in a race when he was still newly establishing Emperor. And believe it or not, Kyouichi had not even done what he had allowed his teammates to do to _my_ brother. Keisuke Takahashi had been spared the indignity my brother had faced. On the other hand, Keisuke didn't actively seek out Emperor on their home grounds, but still, to me it was the same premise.

When I thought about the Takahashis, I thought about their own powerhouse team, Project D. Last year, they took the amateur racing scene by storm, setting up a website with all their win-losses record and actively encouraged people to challenge them on any track they should so desire. Many people tried… and many people lost. They were virtually indestructible.

Evo Prime was not quite like that, but we had our own brand of skill which was much to be desired. The easygoing nature of Alex, Miyoko and my brother Jin were simply infectious. It was extremely hard to inherently abhor them unless you were really hard-set in your head and could not allow any changes. Granted, their skills weren't ultra-rarefied extraordinary (as was noticed by Miyoko's loss against Tomo, a professional racer), but they still tried their best and they still prevailed with enthusiasm, whether they were the victor or the loser. As for me, I learned from their infectious behaviour and I'd learned to let go of my past and move on. To become a better person.

Kyouichi and I sped past another precarious corner and I caught a glimpse of Shingo and Takeshi vigorously waving and cheering. It seemed like almost yesterday that I'd selflessly defeated Takeshi on Myogi as a part of Emperor, and subsequently took his team sticker. It also seemed like yesterday when I'd taken on Shingo in retaliation for what he'd done to Miyoko. And believe it or not, in the end, they ended up becoming one of Evo Prime's strongest supporters. My mind flashed back to when I'd returned Takeshi's cut team sticker to him. Even though I could not take back what I had done, I did my best to atone for my mistake. Tonight, before he'd gone to his vantage point with Shingo, he'd showed me his R32 and he'd distinctively pointed to his sticker, with the clean cut still visible. "I'm going to keep that sticker, even though it's been cut," he'd explained to me. "To me, it will serve as a reminder that we are all capable of making mistakes, but that to admit that we made a mistake and to atone for it is much more difficult thing to do than making the mistake itself."

I'd told him that I was extremely honored that he'd accepted my apology and that I would try my best to avenge his team as well for what Emperor had made me do to them. Most of all, I thanked him for allowing me to learn from my own mistakes and further myself from them.

After further reflection, I'd realized one crucial point: The reason why I'd never progressed in Emperor was because there never was any real reason to progress except for Kyouichi's approval, which wasn't even worth much. If I failed, I was punished. If I succeeded, well, I essentially got nothing.

I watched as we both entered another yet precarious turn. I looked at the white markings on the ground and thought almost immediately; _C-121. The hardest turn on Usui_. I remembered what Mako had told me about C-121… about the optimal speed to take when entering the turn and how to keep your speed in check while drifting throughout. Taking a deep breath, I slipped a bit towards the outside and started to slide in, slowly inching next to Kyouichi in the drift. I could see him trying his best to control his car throughout the turn. He gave me a quick glare, then reasserted his control over his car. Miraculously, we both exited C-121 side by side…

And was met with a large blinding flash of light which seemed to loom closer and closer. There was a truck heading straight for us… or more accurately, towards Kyouichi, since he was on the right side of the road. I cast a quick glance at him and through the glare of the headlights, I could see the absolute terror in his eyes. It was his biggest nightmare come true; a vehicle headed straight for him right after effecting any sort of turn during a touge battle, which is what C-121 had been and then some.

I had a split second to decide. The truck was getting closer and closer.

Should I or shouldn't I?

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, pressed my foot down on the accelerator and turned the wheel…

The next thing I heard was a loud and deafening crash…

* * *

…

Stay tuned!

-BoomChish


	18. CH18: The Race Is Over & Epilogue

Midterms are now over (my grades range from B- to A (University standards) for the most part, so yay!) so I finally went and did it.

It's done… Chapter Eighteen…

Follow The Leader  
by BoomChish

Chapter Eighteen

The Race Is Over

So much to think about…

_You're a disgrace to Emperor, you know that, Seiji?_

_I want you as our team leader. You're going to teach us how to be good road racers…_

_You have to know your car and trust your car first before you can push yourself to the limit. After you've achieved that, learning the other skills, like drifting, is merely a small step up from child's play…_

_It's not that I don't think you're skilled enough. It's just that when racing an opponent on a highly technical course like Happogahara, you wits need to be sharper than a knife…_

_Don't let Kyouichi intimidate you into thinking you're inferior, okay? That was my mistake, and I'd rather not have my team members suffer the same mistakes that I did…._

_Because I have my own team and I'm independent of his influence, he feels that he just has to interfere somehow…_

_I never have to worry about you doing your best, Seiji. That's why the team always looks up to you, even when you're at your dumbest…_

That split second was as if my life flashed before my very eyes. Memories kept swirling in and out of focus… It was a lot of stuff to absorb all at once.

My God… so much stuff to absorb… So much so that I'm now afraid to open my eyes…

I'm afraid of what I might see…

---

Carefully, I opened my eyes. As I did, I heard Miyoko exclaim in a strained voice. "Look! He's waking up! He's finally awake!"

As my eyes opened wide, I took note of my surroundings. Drab white walls, a strange but familiar smell of sterilization… I then saw the metal posts around my… bed?

Holy crap, I was in the hospital!

I looked groggily at everyone who surrounded me. Obviously Alex, Jin and Miyoko were there, but so was Shingo, Takeshi, Mako, Sayuki, Kenji, Iketani, Itsuki, Daiki, Sakai, Tomo and even… Kyouichi… although he was wearing a neck brace.

"How… what the hell am I doing here?"

"You mean you don't remember?" Kenji exclaimed, then hurriedly lowered his voice as he suddenly remembered where he was. There was a sound of someone clearing his throat, then everyone stepped aside as…

Ryousuke Takahashi stepped forward.

_Dr._ Ryousuke Takahashi, to be precise. After all, it's been a year since he retired from road racing and went into medical practice. It's also been a year since Project D ended.

He stared at me with a slight smirk on his face. "I must admit Iwaki, that was a very noble thing for you to do. Even despite your rivalry against Kyouichi, you still valued the fact that he was a human being above all else."

"What? I don't…" And just then, I remembered…

In that split second, before the truck could collide into Kyouichi's Evo III, I deliberately put myself in between the Evo III and the truck… and was hit by the oncoming behemoth on wheels. My Evo, and subsequently myself, received the full impact from the collision with the truck, while Kyouichi merely experienced the recoil from my car and merely received minor injuries as a result.

"What day is it?" I queried.

Ryousuke let out a small chuckle. "It's the thirteenth… a week and a half after your race against Kyouichi. You were out like a light after the crash. Literally." He then crossed over to check my IV bag and then stood next to my bed. "Are you feeling okay? No discomfort?"

"Well, I'm feeling as fine as any person who just wakes up from a coma should be feeling. If that makes any sense," I added as the whole room started to laugh.

"Makes perfect sense," he answered, chuckling lightly. He then looked over at Jin, Alex and Miyoko with an amused smile on his face. "So… you made your own team… Evo Prime. Interesting… I'd heard a lot of things about you."

I tried to sit up to the best of my ability. "What did you hear?" I queried.

"I heard that your team, despite not being the best of the best in the area, was always easygoing and friendly when it came to races. Despite losing, you would take it in good stride."

"Well, there's more to being a racer than just winning and losing," I commented.

"That's true," Ryousuke agreed.

Kyouichi looked over at Ryousuke, then at me. He then stepped forward, his face ashen. "Seiji…"

I looked at him, my face a blank mask. "What is it?"

"I… I don't understand… I need to know… Why? Why'd you put yourself in extreme danger and nearly kill yourself just to save me?"

It was the question I'd been dreading for some time now. I wasn't even sure if I could answer it.

I looked around as if for inspiration, and nearly everyone's eyes were riveted on me, waiting for my answer.

"Well…" I began slowly, "when you think about it, the only reason why I'd accepted to race you was to prove myself, to prove that there's more to me than being the fastest racer on the road. If all I cared about was proving my superiority to you in skill, I'd rig the race so that I would win for sure."

"That happened to my brother once when he was racing against some Evo driver in Saitama on Tsuchizaka. The driver's team mates poured oil on the track and Keisuke wiped out, crashing his FD in the process. A poor way to win, I must admit, but it worked to the effect that the Evo driver had intended." Ryousuke then looked at me. "It's a good thing you didn't stoop that low."

"I have more dignity than that," I declared stoutly.

"I'm glad that you do," Ryousuke spoke with a smile. "Please continue what you were saying before."

I looked at Kyouichi again. "As I was saying, I didn't care about beating you to prove my skill level. All I really cared about was proving to you that I'd improved my personality by becoming my own team leader. I had no choice but to improve for the sake of my teammates, Jin, Miyoko and Alex. If I'd remained what I was when I'd left Emperor, Evo Prime would probably be just as disliked as I used to be."

Kyouichi said nothing, so I continued, "When that truck came out of nowhere, I remembered your weakness in racing on a two-way street. I knew that you would freak out and subsequently get hurt, so I put myself in the way. To save you, because in the end, you're still a person. If it was in my power to save you, I'd do it." I let out a small chuckle. "As it was, my roll cage saved me any serious damage. That's another factor in my favour."

"You had a roll cage installed in your car? Why?" Kyouichi demanded.

I looked over at Miyoko. "It was Miyoko's idea. She was worried about any damage that may happen to me if I were to race you."

"If your teammates were willing to attack Jin without provocation, I figured you would be just as willing to attack Seiji, especially considering he's the real object of your enmity," Miyoko explained. "Maybe I was a bit paranoid in thinking that, but in the end, I suppose I saved him from real danger."

"Sometimes it pays to have a girl's perspective when discussing major issues for your team," Sayuki replied with a smile, which elicted a ripple of chuckles from everyone.

Kyouichi still looked somber. "I guess I never really knew you that well after all…" He then fell silent for a while. Everyone looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant by that.

It was Ryousuke who spoke, "Sudou, what do you mean?"

"Seiji's been a part of my team pretty much since the beginning of Emperor up until I threw him out several months ago. For the most part, he was brash and overconfident, but unerringly obedient. Seeing him now, like this… it's as if he was an entirely different person. He's not the same Seiji I knew for so long…"

"Well, everyone has the capacity to change… but it ultimately remains the decision of the person themselves to change. No one else can force them to change." Looking over at my fellow teammates, I had a slight smirk on my face, "My team gave me a reason to change. And I thank them for it."

Kyouichi regarded the other Evo Prime members for a long while. "I guess I've misjudged you kids… You have your own power that gives you your precedence over others in a specific way…"

Miyoko, Jin and Alex just looked at Kyouichi and said nothing. Takeshi then looked over at both Kyouichi and I, then cleared his throat. "Still, what you did was unbelievably unexpected, Seiji. After all he's done to you… and made you do in the name of Emperor… you still put your life on the line for him… I probably wouldn't have done that if I were in your position."

I inclined my head. "Maybe that's why I'm glad I'm not you," I joked, causing another ripple of chuckles to sweep through my room. My expression then sobered. "But it just goes to show that even the ones you know the most can produce the most unexpected results."

"Or the ones you least expect can be the ones who can save you," Shingo agreed. "Like when Seiji came after me for attacking Miyoko on the road… I accidentally crashed and he came back and escorted me to the hospital. I'd expected him to just leave me, considering his past with Emperor, but I definitely didn't expect him to come to my aid."

Kenji also took the time to speak. "Believe it or not, I was surprised to hear from my cousin Miyoko that Seiji was her team leader. Because from what I'd remembered of him, I'd expected him to be a bad influence on my cousin." He chuckled. "What ended up happening was the reverse, actually."

"Hey! I wasn't a bad influence on Seiji!" she protested as she cuffed Kenji on the arm. He yelped upon impact, causing a light chuckle from his teammates.

"I dunno Miyoko… you _did_ almost cause Seiji to leave us with your childish tantrum, remember?" Alex recalled somewhat grimly. Miyoko's face fell at the mention of that. I don't think she wanted to be reminded of that, so I shook my head and gestured for her to stand closer.

"Listen Miyoko… despite what the others may think, I do have to thank you above all else. It was your childish tantrums which taught me that I had to change my tactics in training you all as a team. Because innately, I don't think I was meant to be a racing instructor at all… but when it comes to encouraging three rather immature young adults to achieve their best potential while road racing… well, that's a little more in my league," I spoke distinctively as I looked straight at her, with a smile on my face.

"We are _not_ immature!" Jin protested half in jest, half in indignation.

I then looked at him, my face full of mock accusation. "No? Who was it then, who taught Miyoko how to chase me down in the house and tackle me to the ground, hmm? Her father?" Jin made a sour face at that as the rest of them laughed openly.

"Actually, maybe she learned that on her own… and was maybe trying to tell you something else, Iwaki…" Ryousuke joked, causing Miyoko to shriek in protest.

"Takahashi-san! I resent that!" she cried out, despite his (and my) laughter.

"I was only kidding, Ieyasu-chan. But I am not blind to the fact that all three of you obviously dote upon your leader… despite his limitations. It's touching, actually, how the four of you have such a strong bond that few other teams have."

Miyoko reached over and ruffled my hair. "Well, Seiji may be an idiot, but he's our idiot," she spoke with pride in her voice. I swatted her hand away, still with a smile on my face. She sniffed in jest and swatted my hand in return.

Kyouichi still looked over quietly at us, without speaking. I don't know what he was thinking, but his silence was intriguing. I gave him a direct stare, then said, in a low voice, "Could you all leave the room please, for a moment. I'd like to speak with Kyouichi alone."

"You sure about that?" Ryousuke queried as he checked my IV one last time.

I nodded. Miyoko squeezed my hand one last time before she nodded to Alex and my brother, who followed the rest of them out of the room. I waited until everyone was gone before I looked at Kyouichi again. "Is there anything you wanted to say that you didn't want the others to hear?"

He let out a sigh. "I feel very bad… but I honestly must apologize for suppressing your true potential, both as a racer and as a person. I must admit, I never expected you, of all people, to become like this."

I remained quiet for a moment, before I chuckled and said, "Is it just me, or are you going soft on me, Kyou?" I joked.

For a split second, I saw a shadow of the old Kyouichi, the cool, commanding leader of Emperor, as he glared at me. Then, in an instant, it faded and he chuckled heartily. "Maybe I am, Seiji. Maybe I am."

"Dear God, save me," I murmured half in jest, half woefully. Kyouichi laughed out loud at that.

"Oh, come on now. I would think that even if I _did_ try anything funny with you, Ieyasu-chan would come in swinging and knock me out cold, like she did to Satake." He then shook his head as he remembered. "My God, she's vicious."

"He's still angry at her, isn't he?" I queried.

"Yeah, he is. After all, it's not every day that a girl – a rich and successful one at that – comes out of nowhere and roundhouse-kicks you in the face, sending you flying on your ass in front of all your friends and teammates, not to mention your rival and all his supporters. On the other hand, he _is_ in shock at why you'd sacrificed yourself to save me like that."

"Up until a while ago, you were too," I leveled with him.

"Ah, true that," he agreed.

There was a brief awkward silence before Kyouichi cleared his throat. "What I really wanted to say was… well… this isn't easy for me… but I'm sorry. I'm sorry for having kicked you out for such an asinine reason all those months ago. I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you, and I probably should have done better as a leader to encourage and foster your skills as a racer."

"Kyou… You don't need to apologize. Kicking me out of Emperor was all for the best. I became stronger with that ordeal. And I helped foster hidden skills and awarenesses within other racers when I formed Evo Prime. And when I say other racers, I don't necessarily just mean Alex, Miyoko and my brother. I also mean my supporters as well…"

"Who'd have thought that _you_, of all people, could be the one who could develop such camaraderie between multiple members of the road racing scene? Even though they all belong from rival teams? It's astounding."

I shrugged haplessly with a smile dominating my features. "What can I say? Must be my charm."

Kyouichi snorted. "If it's your charm, then that must be potent stuff. Because your face sure hasn't gotten any prettier!" he joked.

"Well you're no prize calf yourself, Sudou!" I retaliated, laughing out loud. We both dissolved into gales of laughter, which was interrupted by Miyoko, who re-entered the room. "So what's so funny in here?"

"It's just nothing, Miyoko," I answered, waving a hand at her in dismissal. "We're just catching up on lost time, that's all."

She smiled and nodded at the both of us. "Good for you!" she replied before she waved to us and simply walked out. Kyouichi watched her leave, then turned to me. "So Seiji… forgive me for prying… but you gotta tell me… what's it like living with Miyoko Ieyasu?"

I looked at him for a moment with a confused suspicious look before I said, "Well, she's unpredictable, I'll give you that… But she's all right."

"That all? No juicy stuff?" he spoke, somewhat disappointed. I gave him a weird stare.

"Kyou… you're starting to sound like a gossipy old woman! Are you okay?"

He started to laugh. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just curious, that's all. But hey, if you get along with her fine, then that's pretty cool." He then glanced at the door. "Must have been difficult at first, having a woman on your team, no?"

I inclined my head. "Somewhat, but once you get to know her better, it gets easier. The whole trick is not to treat her like she's frail or incapable of doing things on her own. Once you overcome that, everything's fine."

"I'll take your word for it," he answered calmly. He then appeared to mull over something, so I remained quiet as well, until he said, "Seiji… I already know your answer to this question… but still, it doesn't hurt to ask…" There was a slight pause. "Would you like to come back to Emperor?"

I raised my eyebrows at that. Above all, I wasn't expecting Kyouichi to ask me this question at all. Especially if he knew my answer.

"Well… if you know my answer, then… why'd you ask?"

"Like I said, it doesn't hurt to ask," he replied.

I nodded. "Well… for obvious reasons…" Here, I let out a sigh. "Kyou, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go back. A part of me would still like to go back to being with Emperor. Not because of the dominating aspect of it, but more the familiarity of it. Even though I'm happy as leader of Evo Prime, I'm still somewhat uncomfortable when I'm with them, especially since they're all so much younger than I am. But… despite all that, I can't just leave Evo Prime behind. Like Takahashi said, they've become very dear to me… and to leave them behind now would be too much of a betrayal. After all I've taught them, it would be more than just a slap to their faces. They'd never forgive me."

Kyouichi had a weird smile on his face. "Whoever said I wasn't including them, Seiji?"

That caught my attention. "What? You mean you want _all of_ Evo Prime to join Emperor?" I was completely stunned. "But I… they… uh… won't they stand out? Especially Miyoko, since she's not only the youngest out of all of us, but the only female?"

He inclined his head. "I was hoping that you'd help me in helping them settle in. Assuming you're all willing to join us."

I made a face. "It's not that I doubt that they'll fit in. But will the other guys in Emperor accept them? Especially Satake, since he's still pissed off at what Miyoko did to him."

Kyouichi shrugged. "I would expect that it would take some time for him and the others to get used to it. But I have confidence in the fact that it can work out. Besides, not to be overly critical of your skills as a racing instructor, but under my tutelage, Alex, Miyoko and your brother can extend their skills far beyond the scope they could ever expect under your training."

"Assuming you don't limit their potential, as you did mine," I added, somewhat disdainfully.

"Well, judging by their free-spirited nature, I highly doubt that they'd accept any of my criticisms lightly. But of course, you'd be free to intervene if you feel that I'm stepping out of line with them."

I hesitated. "Well… I'd have to ask them about it first, Kyou… I may be leader of Evo Prime, but this is a decision that I need their approval on."

He nodded. "Understandable. Take your time. I don't need an answer right away, but do think about it." He then stood up. "Because it'd be great having you back in Emperor, Seiji. It's been a while."

"No doubt," I agreed. "Well… we'll see, alright? No definite promises… but we'll see…"

EPILOGUE

(two months later)

"… three… two… one… GO!"

Miyoko dropped her hand as both Alex and Nogami sped off the starting line and disappeared down Irohazaka's treacherous downhill. She turned around to watch them go, then calmly made her way back to where the rest of us were standing. Kyouichi had a stopwatch in his hand and was watching the two Evos vanish down the straightaway, then he looked down at it.

"Their start-up was a little slow… but oh well…" He shrugged. "Can't expect it all, can I?"

"Well, Alex tried a cold start-up, didn't he? Wouldn't it have been better for him to go with a hot start-up? Especially since the Evo VII has a turbo?" Jin hazarded as he looked over at Kyouichi.

"It depends on how well you know your car's optimal shift points. In general, it is better for a car with a turbo to go with a hot start-up, but if your shifting is off, then the full potential is lost," he explained.

In case you hadn't noticed, Alex, Jin and Miyoko finally agreed to the merger between Emperor and Evo Prime. They mostly agreed because of the notion that they could learn more under Kyouichi than me, but they refused to surrender their loyalty to me, or, for that matter, their own indvidual team personality. Because of that, Kyouichi even went so far as to admittedly changing _his_ team name to Irohazaka's Emperor Prime. A lot of the Emperor guys were against that, but Kyouichi simply pointed out that it's merely a compromise to welcome in the members of Evo Prime. They could still call themselves Emperor if they wished; on that same note, we could still call ourselves Evo Prime, but when it all boiled down, we were all a part of one team.

To show their association with Emperor, Alex, Jin and Miyoko accepted to have the Emperor sticker placed on their back windshields, as Kyouichi had on his Evo. (Well, in Miyoko's case, she got the very first-ever "Empress" sticker placed on _her_ windshield, which she displayed with pride.)

As for me, Kyouichi presented me with a brand-new Emperor sticker to replace the one he'd destroyed all those months ago. I graciously accepted it and placed it back on my rear windshield, except on the left side, as Kyouichi's was displayed. And with reason; he and I were now co-leaders of the new combined team. I wasn't just his second-in-command, I was now his equal. In authority, if not in skill.

I wish I could say that the transition from two separate teams to one big team was a smooth one, but that is just wishful thinking. Satake still hadn't forgiven Miyoko for kicking him in the face, and on the same note, Miyoko hadn't forgiven Satake for what he'd said about her. But aside from them, everyone seemed to be getting along just fine.

Maybe this as well would be a new experience for me to learn from. But unlike before, where I was separate from my former teammates, now we were all back together. With new additions to the team to boot. Changes were happening, and it was an interesting thing to deal with.

It's fun being a leader… there's so much to learn… and there's so much that can happen while doing so…

_THE END... ?_

* * *

Dude… that's it?!

Of course not! But first off, let me just finalize on a few points here: First off, yes, the White Comet of Akagi makes his first appearance… as a doctor! Meaning only one thing… Project D is over… They've already established themselves as the best of the best in Japan and now they've all gone their separate ways. Whatever happened to Keisuke and Takumi, you ask? Well… who knows?

If you'd been paying attention at all to the timeline I used in Follow The Leader and followed the anime/manga just as closely (which I doubt, so I won't hold it against you all), you would get nuances that the story took place after Project D's time. The first clue is Seiji constantly referring to his matches against Takeshi and Takumi "two years ago". Second Stage / Third Stage happened roughly around 1998-1999. A year later, 1999-2000, is technically the timeline for Fourth Stage and Project D. A year _after that_ would be 2001, just in time for the Evo VIIs to appear on the market (since the Evo VII was released in Feburary 2001) Despite all that, there IS a big time fallacy in one of my chapters. I _could_ change it, but I'm too lazy to do so, (plus, I've got my workload piling up and since this thing here is done, I won't bother) but good luck finding it :P

I'll bet you're probably wondering why oh why did Seiji go back to Emperor? Well, put it simply, I get the impression that alone, Seiji isn't really Seiji in the Initial D context. If I am to stay true to the essence of Initial D, Seiji belongs in Emperor. lame proverb You can take the Monstar out of Emperor, but you can't take the Emperor out of the Monstar :P /lame proverb The only difference now is that instead of being Kyouichi's lackey, he's now his equal in authority. That and they now have two home courses instead of one.

Yes, there IS a continuation for this story, but the only version that will be posted here on will be a condensed "edited" version, done by Kyouichi's point of view. The real uncut version will be posted on a separate site. (the link will appear in my profile once I upload the first chapters of the sequel.) Why, you may ask? Simply because the full continuation contains a very blatantly obvious Mary-Sue pairing (and if you've gotten this far, you must obviously know who it will be), but I get the impression that there are already enough Initial D Mary-Sue fics here, and so I won't sully your eyes with it and leave the decision for you to view the full version or not.

_The race is over, time to discover_

_Brand new spaces_

_The race is over, now and forever_

_You gotta lead it your way…_

-BoomChish


End file.
